SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
101 
filar micrometer and apparatus for wire-illumination by galvanic current, 
and a large and ponderous spectroscope bj Browning, with two prisms, of 
which one only can be used for very faint objects, the collimator lens and 
object-glass of inspecting telescope having each an aperture of 1^-inch ; 
there is a tangent-screw micrometer, and filar ditto arranged to throw an 
illuminated image of the webs across a faint spectrum ; besides the usual 
appliances of transit, clocks, &c. — Mr. Lockyer and Major Festing have 
been sent by the English Government to Home, with the object of borrow- 
ing from the Italian Government a collection of interesting astronomical 
instruments, to be exhibited next year at South Kensington. — Mr. Lick, it 
is said, has selected Mount Hamilton, in Santa Clara county, California, 
4,448 feet high, with no rival within fifty miles, as the site for the 
“million dollar telescope.” — The largest achromatic ever made will 
shortly be in progress at Mr. Grubb's new factory near Dublin. The 
aperture will be 26 inches, or 27 if the discs, which are the production 
of M. Feil, of Paris, will admit of it. It is intended for the grand new 
observatory at Vienna, and will probably not be finished before 1878. — A 
12i-inch object-glass by Grubb has recently been mounted at the new 
Observatory at Oxford. — Feil’s glass, which seems likely to supersede that 
of English manufacture, not now as successful as in past years, has been 
already tried and approved by Wray. — Alvan Clark, it is said, has received 
an order from the Austrian Government for an immense reflector, to be 
placed in a new observatory at Trieste. (For “reflector” we should 
probably read “ achromatic,” though w r e have heard that specula occupied 
the earliest attention of that great optician.) — The new great reflector 
at the Paris Observatory is said to turn out very satisfactorily. The 
movable part weighs nine tons, the speculum of silvered glass half 
a ton, its diameter being 120 centimetres (47^ inches), and focal length 
6*8 metres (22 ft. 4 in.) The front view has been adopted. It is said 
to give good definition of minute stars; though we may be pardoned 
for suggesting that if it was finished by the method of retouching 
devised by Leon Foucault, its figure is hardly likely to equal those worked 
by the direct process adopted by the most eminent makers in England. 
This magnificent instrument, which is protected, when not in use, by a 
gigantic iron cover, movable on rails, has been six years in construction, at 
an expense of 8,0007, of which one quarter was absorbed in the speculum 
alone. Our neighbours, in the midst of their political difficulties and social 
distresses, have shown a noble example of scientific munificence, which we 
earnestly desire to see followed among ourselves, and we cordially wish 
the new telescope success. 
BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
Mr. Cooke’s “ Mycogrctphia .” — The first part of this splendid work, which 
is accompanied with coloured illustrations, has just made its appearance. It 
contains descriptions of Oeoglossum and Peziza. It is published privately, and 
we are informed that only a very limited number of copies will be issued. Its 
title is “ Mycographia seu leones fungorum.” It is not stated at what time 
