SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
83 
passing away from the sun’s neighbourhood, and will not he stationary until 
April 19. 
Eclipse of the Moon . — On the evening of January 6 the moon will be 
partially eclipsed. The following are the principal elements of the eclipse 
(which will be visible in England) : — 
Mean Time at 
Greenwich 
First contact with the penumbra . , « 
. 6 
27 3 p.m. 
First contact with the shadow « » • 
. 7 
46-2 „ 
Middle of the Eclipse .. . . » . 
. 9 
16-4 „ 
Last contact with the- shadow 
. 10 
46 6 „ 
Last contact with the penumbra . . . 
. 12 
5-5 „ 
The magnitude of the eclipse (moon’s diameter as 1) will be 0 688. First 
contact with the shadow will occur at 130° from the northernmost point of 
the limb towards the east; and last contact at 127° towards the west. (In 
each case for direct image.) 
BOTANY. 
u Crow's Nests ” or “ Fasciations ." — At the meeting of the Academy of 
Natural Science of Philadelphia in August last, Mr. Thomas Meehan said 
very little had been written about the causes of those bunches of branches 
often seen in trees, and ealled by the people “crow’s nests,” and by botanists 
fasciations. Dr. Masters, in Teratology , briefly refers to them, and alludes to 
“ over -nutrition ” as the cause of their existence. He had watched almost 
daily the past year one of Abies b'alsameaon his own grounds. The branchlets 
were weak, the leaves were comparatively long and slender, not distichously 
arranged, pale in colour, deciduous, and many of the branchlets died in the 
winter. All these were evidences of weak nutrition. He had found two 
trees of sassafras, apparently of the -same age, growing within a few yards of 
each other, but one with numerous fasciculated bunches. In addition to the 
characters in the other case, here' the fasciculated tree was not as large as 
the other one. That weakness, not strength, was the cause, was also proved 
by facts from an opposite direction — namely, the law of sex. He had already 
shown that a low condition of vitality favoured male, at the expense of the 
female organs. He had found a large number of fasciculations in the 
common blackberry, and in all instances, besides the yellowness and the 
other marks, there was a tendency to abortion in the pistils, an increase in 
the number of petals, and a development of foliaceous points to the usual 
calyx segments. So that his law of sex, as well as the usual phenomena of 
weakened vitality, indicated that it was this and not over-nutrition which 
caused fasciations in trees. 
The Germ Theory of Fermentation . — A series of papers under this heading 
has recently been published in the Chemical Nexus by Dr. A. E. Sansom. 
They can be referred to by those not well acquainted with the literature of 
the subject. We find, however, nothing that is new in Dr. Sansom’s obser- 
vations. 
