SCIENTIFIC SUMMAKY. 
303 
I Frocyori) ■was estimated at about two classes of magnitude less than the 
• companion of Sirius discovered by Alvan Clark, of which the author had 
f succeeded in obtaining a good measure only a few minutes before, Sirius 
i being scarcely 13° above the horizon ; a sufficient proof that the Procyon 
' companion was not a false image produced by impurity of the object-glass 
or other defect. 
( Transmission of Free Messages on Astronomical Subjects over the Trans~ 
' atlantic Cables. — A very important concession has been made to the Smith- 
! sonian Institution by 'the Directors of the Associated Transatlantic Cable 
{ Companies, who have agreed to transmit gratuitously between Europe and 
! the United States a limited number of short messages on astronomical sub- 
jects. Under this arrangement two telegrams have already been received 
from the United States by the Astronomer Royal, who on his part has 
I undertaken, at the req^uest of Dr. Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian 
j Institution, to forward from Europe any message announcing an important 
astronomical discovery. The Directors of the Associated Companies have 
consented that ten messages, of ten words each, may be sent free over the 
■ cables annually. This liberal concession on the part of the Directors cannot 
' be too highly appreciated by astronomers generally, and especially by the 
Fello-ws of the. Astronomical Society. 
Sun-spot Observations at the Kew Observatory. — Mr. De La Rue gives the 
following as the summary of the Sun-spot observations at Kew during 
1872 
■\Ionth=? Days of 
.uontns. Observation. 
Numbers given to the New 
Groups in the Kew Cata- 
logue. 
Number of 
New 
Groups. 
Days with- 
out Spots. 
January 
10 
1800 
to 
1820 
21 
0 
Eebruary 
14 
1821 
1843 
23 
0 
March 
10 
1844 
1850 
7 
0 
April 
15 
1851 
1872 
22 
0 
May 
18 
1873 
5? 
1891 
19 
0 
June 
16 
1892 
1905 
14 
0 
July 
14 
1906 
1918 
13 
0 
August 
14 
1919 
U 
1927 
9 
3 
September 
13 
1928 
V 
1949 
22 
0 
October 
10 
1950 
)7 
1961 
12 
0 
November 
13 
1962 
77 
1979 
18 
0 
December 
6 
1980 
77 
1985 
6 
0 
Total 
153 
No. 1800 to No. 1985 
186 
3 
The above, which is a continuation of former tables given in the “ Monthly 
Notices,” has been but partially compiled from the photographs taken with 
the Kew heliograph. — [Over from last No. P. S. R.] 
BOTANY AND VEGETABLE PHILOSOPHY. 
A new Mycological Herbarium. — We learn from Mr. Cooke’s excellent 
little periodical Grevillea ” [March], that a very admirable work on this 
subject is just being issued by Baron Thuemen of Teplitz. Mr. C. B. 
