SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
107 
potatoes. For this parasite Mr. Smith proposes the name of Peronosporites 
antiquarius* Peronosporci is one of those low forms, the true position of 
which is exceedingly doubtful. If not an Alga, it is exceedingly nearly 
related to the Algae, and we may remind our readers that some two years 
ago Professor Duncan described before the Geological Society (“ Quarterly 
Journal of the Geological Society,” vol. xxxii., p. 205) the occurrence in 
fossil shells and corals even as low down in the series of formations as the 
Silurians, of parasitic mycelia hearing sporangia, very similar in many respects 
to the organisms described by Mr. Smith. He regarded these filamentous 
plants as Algae, nearly related to the existing genus Adilya, and named the 
species, Palceachlya perforans. Mr. Oarruthers, at a still earlier period (“ Quar- 
terly Journal of the Geological Society,” vol. xxvi., p. 351) noticed the oc- 
currence of mycelial threads, which he referred to Peronospora, among the cells 
of his Osmundites Dowkeri, an Eocene fossil fern from Herne Bay. References 
to previous observers of similar perforant organisms in recent and fossil 
shells, and other hard parts of animals, will be found in Professor Duncan’s 
paper above referred to. Professor Kolliker regarded the parasites observed 
by him in recent shells as Fungi. 
METEOROLOGY. 
A Third Diurnal Barometric Maximum in Winter. — M. Rykatchev 
announces (“ Bull. Acad. Sci. de St. Petersb.,” tome xxiv., No. 1, p. 108) 
that throughout the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere the 
barometer in winter, and especially in the month of January, shows a third 
maximum, or at least a greater or less rise between one and two o’clock in 
the morning. He gives a table showing the diurnal course of the barometer 
at numerous stations in Europe, Asia, and North America, in support 
of his statement. His third maximum is greatest between latitudes 40° and 
45° N. *, in the tropics it is not observed. M. Rykatchev takes occasion to 
point out from the occurrence of this maximum the necessity of day and 
night observations of the barometer at all stations, seeing that the barometric 
curves drawn in accordance with Bessels’ formula from day observations 
alone give no indication of it. 
MINERALOGY. 
Coloradoite. — Closely following on Krenner’s announcement of the occur- 
rence of bunsenine (gold telluride) at Nagyag comes the discovery by Genth 
of a new telluride, to which he has given the above name. (“ Amer. Journ. 
Sci.,” 1877, xiv. p. 423). It has been met with in the Keystone and Mountain 
Lion Mines of Colorado. The new species is not crystallized, and has an 
iron black colour and metallic lustre ; its composition has been found to be 
Mercury 60*98 
Tellurium 39*02 
100*00 
Antiquus would be a better specific name. 
