SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
313 
We hear, also, of a meteor shower observed on October 25, 1866, at noon 
in West Australia. 
On August 21, Jupiter will appear for an hour and three quarters without 
visible satellites. The occulations, eclipses, and transits of the several 
satellites will doubtless be watched with interest by the telescopist. 
BOTANY. 
The affinities of Erica carnea. — Dr. H. F. Hance has contributed a paper 
on this subject to the Journal of Botany , in which he gives some very 
useful comparisons of E. carnea with the allied European species. The 
specimen examined by him had been collected in Devon, and had lain 
unnoticed for several years in his herbarium. It seems to be most closely 
related to E. Mediterranean so closely, indeed, that Mr. Bentham unites the 
two. This view is, however, opposed by Mr. H. C. Watson, the accomplished 
editor of the Cybele Britannica , who explains what he considers an error, by 
supposing that Mr. Bentham must have confined his examination to herba- 
rium specimens, “ which are much alike, although in a living state the 
whole habit of growth of the two species as well as their climatal require- 
ments are widely dissimilar.” Nyman gives the following as the distribution 
of the species : — E. carnea : Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, Dalmatia, 
Croatia, Hungary, Transylvania, and Greece. E. Mediterranea : Inland 
France, Spain, France, and Portugal. Dr. Hance seems to have given the 
matter some attention, and his conclusion is as follows : — <l On comparing 
the Devonshire plant with the Irish one, and with a Tyrolese specimen from 
Mr. Baker, and a Savoy one collected by Huguenin, of E. carnea , it is 
evident that it agrees rather with the latter ; — the corolla being constricted 
at the throat, the anthers entirely exserted — and the leaves, some of which 
are conspicuously keeled, whilst others are as evidently furrowed beneath — 
having the decurrent line from their base distinctly prolonged to the second 
whorl beneath them. I fear, however, that implicit reliance cannot be 
placed on the two last characters, which Professor Babington gives as 
diagnostic, for in E. carnea the median keel of the leaves, though apparently 
always distinct at the base, sometimes gradually merges into a furrow about 
halfway up, and the ridge also occasionally ceases at the nearest inferior verticil. 
Nevertheless, the shorter, wider, open-mouthed corolla, and semi-included 
anthers of the Irish species give the flowers so very distinct an appearance, 
that I do not think the two could well be confounded.” — Vide the Journal of 
Botany , May. 
A Hybrid Palm of a very remarkable character has been produced by M. 
Denis of Hyeres. He obtained it by impregnating the ovules of Chcemerops 
humilis with the pollen of Phoenix dactylifera. As might have been expected, 
the hybrid is intermedial in character between the two parents; but the 
plants produced from its seeds resemble the male plant more decidedly than 
the female. 
The St. Mary’s Botanical Lectureship. — We have much pleasure in stating 
that Dr. Trimen was lately unanimously elected to this office. No more 
