1872.] 



On the Fossil Plants of the Coal-measures. 



199 



I. u Letter from W. De La Rue, F.R.S., to Prof. Stokes, Sec. R.S., 

 relative to the Observations taken with the Kew Heliograph/'' 



The Observatory, Cranford, Middlesex, W., 

 February 5th, 1872. 



My dear Sir, — I beg herewith to hand you a statement of the expen- 

 diture of the ^6200 I received in February 1871 from the Government- 

 Grant Fund for working the Kew heliograph and measuring and reducing 

 the photographic pictures from February 1st, 1871, to January 30, 1872. 

 I enclose the vouchers. 



The work which I undertook to superintend during the last ten years 

 has been brought to a close, so far as the observations are concerned. It 

 has, however, been impossible to keep up the measurements of the sun- 

 pictures and their reduction to the day. Indeed it will take eighteen 

 months to bring these to a close ; I have agreed with Mrs. Whipple (for- 

 merly Miss Beckley) and Mr. Loewy to complete this work for a specific 

 sum (£1 70). As the funds placed at my disposal are exhausted, I will 

 defray this expense myself. 



It may be of interest to the Government-Grant Committee to know that, 

 during the ten years (1862, February, to the end of January 1871), 2778 

 pictures have been obtained on 1724 days. 



Since the Kew instrument was devised and constructed, I have been 

 able, with the aid of Mr. Dalmeyer, to introduce many improvements, 

 both in the mechanical parts and the optical portion of the instru- 

 ment ; but I did not think it desirable to interrupt the sun-work to make 

 any changes in the Kew heliograph. Now that the w T ork is completed, I 

 would recommend that the secondary magnifier should be changed to the 

 form adopted in the instrument made for the Russian Government, under my 

 direction, and now at work at Wilna, by which very much better pictures 

 are obtained than those procured at Kew. The cost of this change would 

 be about .£30. 



II. " On the Organization of the Fossil Plants of the Coal-measures. 

 —Part III. Lycopodiacece." By W. C. Williamsox, F.R.S., 

 Professor of Natural History in Owen's College, Manchester. 

 Received February 29, 1872. 



(Abstract.) 



An outline of the subject of this memoir has already been published in 

 the Proceedings* in a letter to Dr. Sharpey. In a former memoir the 

 author described the structure of a series of Lepidodendroid stems, appa- 

 rently belonging to different genera and species. He now describes a very 

 similar series, but all of which, there is strong reason for believing, belong 



* Supra, p. 05. 



a 2 



