246 Scientific Intelligence. 



thallophytes will receive their proportionate share of attention." 

 Some idea of the character of the matter presented may be 

 obtained from the following titles, selected from the numbers 

 before us : rattlesnake plantains of New England (with plate) ; 

 notes on algae ; a new wild lettuce from Massachusetts (with plate); 

 notes on some fleshy fungi found near Boston ; some plants about 

 Williamstown ; fairy-rings formed by Lycopodium ; bryophyte 

 flora of Maine. a. w. e. 



4. Catalogue of the Lepidoptera JPhalcence in the British 

 Museum, Vol. I, Syntomidai ; by Geokge F. Hampson. With 

 17 colored plates. 8vo. London, 1898. — This is the first volume 

 of a proposed catalogue of all the known genera and species of 

 moths. The introduction contains a brief statement of the 

 external structure of the Lepidoptera and an analytical key to 

 the families. This is followed by the account of the Syntomidae, 

 a family of very pretty moths which is confined almost exclusively 

 to tropical and subtropical regions. Nearly twelve hundred 

 species are described and the genera and subgenera illustrated by 

 285 figures in the text. The plates contain about 370 beautifully 

 colored illustrations of new or hitherto inadequately figured 

 species, but, as they are not essential to the plan of the work, 

 they are issued separately, so that the text may be sold at a much 

 less price than if the plates were combined with it. 



IV. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Report of S. P. Lang ley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, for the year ending June 30th, 1898. — The annual reports of 

 the working of the Smithsonian Institution are always of much 

 interest, because of its remarkably wide range of activity. One 

 of its most important functions is the international exchange ser- 

 vice, and the map of the world here introduced, which shows the 

 distribution of its correspondents, sets forth in a very telling man- 

 ner the perfection to which this system has been carried. Not 

 only are correspondents very numerous in the well-known coun- 

 tries, but we find, for example, 99 in China, 204 in Brazil, 24 in 

 Iceland, etc. The total number of correspondents is very nearly 

 30,000. 



Much of interest is given in regard to the workings of the 

 Smithsonian in every direction, but we can only speak particu- 

 larly of the Astrophysical Observatory. Mr. C. G. Abbott, in 

 charge, enumerates as follows the most important features of 

 the work of the past year : 



1. The instrumental equipment has received valuable accessions, 

 including a highly sensitive galvanometer, designed and con- 

 structed at the Observatory ; two cylindric mirrors by Brashear 

 (which, as used for collimation of the spectroscope, are equivalent 

 to a lens of 64 meters focal length), and, finally and most import- 

 ant of all, a system of cooling by the expansion of ammonia, 

 which has made possible an extension of constant temperature 



