268 Anniversary Address by Sir A. Geikie. [Nov. 30, 
of metals and alloys are determined by their electric conductivities alone, in 
accordance with Maxwell’s theory. It followed from Maxwell’s own observa- 
tions on the absorption of gold-leaf for visible light that agencies more 
complex than conductivity must be involved for these shorter wave-lengths. 
Prof. Rubens has recently apphed to the measurement of the long infra- 
red wave-lengths a quartz interferometer, and among other results, he has 
found that the refractive index of water, for waves of length about 82u, is of 
the same order as for waves in the visible spectrum, while for the shortest 
Hertzian waves yet examined, about 2000y, it is as high as 9. 
These examples will serve to illustrate how much Prof. Rubens has already 
done to bridge the gap between optical radiations and electric waves 
produced by direct electric agency, and how much more is to be expected 
from him in the investigation of the interval still remaining in which such 
fundamental changes of properties take place. 
Royal MEDALS. 
The awards of the two Royal Medals given annually by our Patron the 
King have received His Majesty’s approval. 
One of these Medals has been assigned to Prof. Frederick Orpen 
Bower in recognition of the great merit of his contributions to morpho- 
logical botany, of which department of science he is the acknowledged 
leader in Great Britain. Prof. Bower’s early studies in this field 
(1880—82), on the genera Welwitschia and G'netum, were marked by the 
discovery of the true nature of the two persistent leaves in Welwitschia. 
The next period of his work was given to a study of the morphology of the 
leaf. He developed in 1884 the idea of the phyllopodium or leaf-axis, and 
discussed in 1885 the apex of the leaf in Osmunda and Todea. This latter 
study was cognate to subsequent researches, the results of which were given 
in 1886 in a review of “ Apospory and Allied Phenomena.” This work, of 
much intrinsic interest, is important as having led its author to formulate the 
views advanced in 1890 in a memoir on “ Antithetic as distinguished from 
Homologous Alternation [of Generation] in Plants.’ Another memoir, 
published in 1889, on “The Comparative Examination of the Meristems of 
Ferns as a Phylogenetic Study,’ prepared in the light of the then received 
belief that the leptosporangiate ferns are the more primitive, was followed in 
1891 bya discussion of this question in which Prof. Bower advanced morpho- 
logical reasons for reversing the hitherto accepted phylogenetic order. The 
new conclusion has proved to be in accord with paleobotanical results, 
and marked another distinct step in the advancement of botanical science. 
