174 Proceedings of Scientific Societies. [February, 



jects are mostly restorations of Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, 

 Mesozoic, Tertiary and Quaternary fossil plants and animals. 

 While the series is designed for popular audiences, they will be 

 found useful in colleges and high schools. 



— Edward Wethered, F. G. S.. of Hillylands, Weston Park, 

 Bath, England, has become sub-editor of the Geological Record, 

 for America, and he asks the cooperation of all geologists by 

 sending to his address all pamphlets or reports, connected directly 

 or indirectly with the geology of this country. His connections 

 will commence with the volume for 1879, and he says that a great 

 effort will be made to bring it up to the present time. 



— Dr. John W. Draper, the eminent scientist, and author of Hu- 

 man Physiology, a History of the Intellectual Development of 

 Europe, the History of the Conflict between Religion and Sci- 

 ence, numerous memoirs on chemical and physical subjects, and 

 a History of the American Civil War, died at Hastings-on-the- 

 Hudson, Jan. 4, aged 71. He was born in England, May 5, 181 1. 



— Professor Arch. Geikie, Director of the Geological Survey of 

 Scotland, has just been appointed Director-General of the whole 

 of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and also Director of 

 the Geological Museum, Jermyn street, London. He will there- 

 fore resign his professorship in the University of Edinburgh and 

 make his residence in London. 



— Dr. Chr. G. A. Giebel, an eminent geologist and author of a 

 work on bird-lice and other insects, died at Halle, Nov. 14. Pro- 

 fessor P. G. Lorentz, a well known German botanist, author of a 

 work on mosses, died at Concepcion, in Uraguay, aged 46. 



— Robert Mallet, whose researches on earthquakes have made 

 his name well known, died in London, Nov. 5, aged 71. His 

 Earthquake Catalogue was completed, says Nature, with the aid 

 of his son, now Professor J. W. Mallet, of Virginia. 



— Professor J. E. Hilgard, after a term of service of thirty- 

 four years as assistant, has been appointed Superintendent of the 

 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ; a most fitting appointment. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



California Academy of Sciences, Nov. 4. — The announce- 

 ment of the generous gift of $20,000 by Charles Crocker, Esq., 

 recorded in the December Naturalist, was made. 



A paper by Professor Davidson, on the Transit of Mercury, 

 accompanied with drawings, was then read, and Dr. Robert E. C. 

 Stearns read a paper on " The Botanical Relations of Physnvithus 

 albens: the structure of its flowers and their peculiarities as an 

 insect trap." He referred to this plant as related to groups which 

 possess various important economical characters, furnishing 

 peculiarly fertile fields for investigators of pharmaceutical and 

 organic chemistry. Dr. Stearns then exhibited many beautiful 

 specimens of these flowers, each one of which had entrapped an 



