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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
The Neiv French Physical Observatory has had M. Janssen appointed to he 
its Governor. Doubtless the position is worthily merited, but we doubt not 
there were some astronomers in Paris who will not think with the Govern- 
ment on this subject. 
Irish Observations on Double Stars. — A discussion of the elements of the 
orbits of <7 Coronae, r Ophiuchi, y Leonis, £ Aquarii, and 36 Andromedae, by 
Dr. Doberck, of Colonel Cooper’s Observatory, Markree, forms Part 19 of 
vol. xxv. of the “ Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.” Dr. Doberck 
employs the graphical method proposed by Sir John Herschel, which has 
been so generally applied, at least in the earlier part of the work. Cor- 
rection of the approximate elements thus obtained by equations of condition 
will lead to satisfactory results where there are reliable single epochs, or a 
sufficient number of contiguous ones, to enable us to form normals. It 
may be questioned whether the additional labour of calculation which some 
of the methods of calculating double-star orbits that have been proposed 
necessarily involve, is rewarded by more satisfactory results that can be 
obtained by the application of Herschel’s graphical process in the first 
instance, following up by equations of condition. 
BOTANY. 
A peculiar Fungus found in a White Ant-hill. — “ Grevillea ” gives a long 
account of a species found in an Indian ant-hill, and it furnishes the report 
made upon it by Dr. D. Cunningham, who says: “I herewith return 
the letter sent to me more than a month ago, along with specimens of fungi 
said to have been procured from the interior of a white ant-hill. The 
specimens apparently belong to some species of Lepiota, and are chiefly 
remarkable for the extreme length and coarse fibrous contents of the stem. 
The occurrence of fungi in connection with ant-hills is well known, but in 
so far as I am aware those hitherto described as occurring on the hills of 
the white-ant belong to species of the Gasteroinycetous order, Podaxinei, so 
that the occurrence of a species of one of the sub-genera of Agciricus in such 
localities is a new and interesting fact. With regard to the material from 
which they arise, and which must apparently be of the same nature as the 
so-called spawn of the cultivated mushroom, consisting of vegetable debris 
permeated by the mycelium of the fungus, it may be noted that a similar 
substance is described by Belt as occurring in the nests of the leaf-culling 
ants of Nicaragua, and is supposed by him to serve as food — the ants culling 
and storing the leaves for the sake of the fungi which are subsequently de- 
veloped in the debris. (“ Naturalist in Nicaragua,” pp. 80.) Were this spawn 
artificially exposed to conditions similar to those which it naturally en- 
counters in the interior of the hillocks — heat, darkness, and moisture — I 
believe that the pilei might very probably be raised at will, and if they 
really are good eating the experiment would be well worth trying.” 
The Flora of India. — “The Academy” says that the first volume of Dr. 
Hooker’s “Flora of India” is the principal contribution to descriptive botany 
of the present year. This is a work that is greatly needed, as we possess 
