98 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
have been led by these and other methods of research are chiefly these r 
The sidereal system is altogether more complicated, altogether more 
varied in structure than has hitherto been supposed. Within one and the- 
same region co-exist stars of many orders of* real magnitude . . . All the 
nebulae hitherto discovered exist within the limits of the sidereal system.” 
And so forth. Mr. Proctor’s offence is not one of yesterday. The paper 
from which we have quoted appeared in the “ Quarterly Journal of Science ” 
for July 1872 ; but since August 1867 (see “Intellectual Observer” for that 
date) Mr. Proctor has been thus unfairly describing as his, results which 
were in reality promulgated by M. Flammarion in 1877. Nay, some were 
announced even earlier by M. Flammarion. For instance, in 1870 Mr. 
Proctor described the drift of five stars of the seven forming “ the Plough.’^ 
Now as far back as 1873 this had been described by M. Flammarion in an 
article entitled 11 The future of a constellation.” M. Flammarion seems to 
think not u Pereant qui, & c.,” but “ Perierunt qui ante nos nostra dixerint.” 
De Vico's Comet . — This comet of short period should have returned to 
perihelion this year according to the calculations of Professor Briinnow. As 
it has not been seen, Mr. Hind considers that 11 we must probably place the 
comet in the class which though undoubtedly moving in elliptical orbits of 
small dimensions when under observation, are now ‘ lost.’ ” u But whether* 
this arises from a larger error in the determination of the mean motion in 
1844 than at present appears admissible, or whether the action of the planet 
Mars may explain it, or, again, whether the comet has encountered one of the 
minor planets, and thereby been deflected or disintegrated, cannot be at 
present ascertained.” 
Phenomena for the Quarter. — Venus will be at her greatest brilliancy as 
an evening star on January 16, in inferior conjunction with the simat 5 a.m. 
February 21, and at her greatest brilliancy as a morning star on March 29. 
The disappearance and reappearance of Saturn’s rings on February 6 and 
March 1 respectively, will not be observable, owing to Saturn’s proximity 
to the sun, Saturn being in conjunction with the sun on March 13 at 6 p.m. 
On February 16, at 5 a.m., Uranus will be in opposition. Neither the solar 
eclipse of February 1, nor the lunar eclipse of February 16, will be visible 
in this country. 
BOTANY. 
Germination of Megarrhiza californica . — Dr. Asa Gray finds that the 
germination of this cucurbitaceous plant, which is allied to Echinocystis, 
presents certain peculiarities which he describes (“ Silliman’s Journal,” 
July 1877). The seeds came up in the manner of beans, the body of the seed 
in its shell being raised well out of the soil upon what seemed to be a well- 
developed radicle, like that of Echinocystis, but no plumule made its appear- 
ance from between the fleshy cotyledons. On the contrary, in about a fortnight, 
in all three of Dr. Gray’s young plants, the plumule pushed separately out of 
the soil of the pot, and, on the whole plant being exposed, it was found to 
spring from the base of what appeared to be an elongated radicle (two 
or three inches long), and below it the thickening of the root, which is a 
