Theoretical Astronomy, relating to the motions of the heavenly bodies, &c., embracing a systematic derivation of the formula for the calculation of the geocentric and heliocentric places, for the determination of the orbits of planets and comets, for the correction of approximate elements, and for the computation of special perturbations; together with the theory of the combination of observations, and the method of least squares, with numerical examples and auxiliary tables. By James C. Watson. Royal 8vo, cloth, pp. 662. Philadelphia, 1868. Trübner and Co. This is a useful treatise, going over the same ground as Chauvenet's valuable Treatise on Astronomy. The latter work is, however, the more complete. We notice also some pages in Mr. Watson's work which require revision. On the whole, however, and considering the extent and difficulty of the subjects treated of, his work is a meritorious one.

Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. By the Rev. T. W. Webb, M.A., F.R.A.S., Incumbent of Hardwick, Herefordshire. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Longmans.

We are glad to see a new edition of Mr. Webb's valuable treatise. As a convenient text-book for the advanced amateur observer, this work is likely to hold its ground for many years. In the new edition Mr. Webb has availed himself of the advice and experience of our leading astronomers. He is himself also in the front rank among observers, a circumstance which largely enhances the value of his work. His treatise is especially valuable for those who wish to take part in the investigation of the moon's surface. We notice a new appendix, in which all the chief lunar objects are arranged alphabetically. There are also two other new appendices; one containing a list of objects in the southern hemisphere, the other giving in their order of right ascension all the stars referred to in the body of the work. There are also one or two new illustrations in the present edition. Altogether the work is one which we can cordially recommend to all those who wish to become systematic

observers of the heavens.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

MEETING AT NORWICH, August, 1868.

THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

DR. HOOKER referred at the commencement of his address to his own early career, which began thirty years since at the Meeting of the British Association at Newcastle. It was to his voyage then undertaken, in company with Sir James Ross, in the Antarctic seas, that his position as President on that evening, he felt, was due. He had not been able to find time to survey the rise of scientific Botany in this address, nor to discuss the relation of the allied sciences to Botany, as he had wished, but he proposed to touch on various matters which appeared to be of interest at the present time. First of all, it was necessary to introduce the International Congress of Pre-historic Archæology, who were to hold their meetings at the same time as those of the British Association. Sir John Lubbock was to preside over this meeting, and it would, Dr. Hooker hoped, receive the cordial sympathy and support of the scientific men then in Norwich. An important matter connected with the science of man had been lately under the consideration of the Council of the Association itself, which must interest equally the members of the Congress. This was the investigation of the habits, manners, form, &c., of the indigenous populations of India, especially those which erect megalithic monuments. In consequence of representations from the Council, the Government of India had set to work to obtain photographs and other information in regard to these people.

"It will, no doubt," said Dr. Hooker, "surprise many here to be told that there exists within 300 miles of the British capital of India, a tribe of semi-savages which habitually erects dolmens, menhirs, cysts, and cromlechs, almost as gigantic in their proportions, and very similar in appearance and construction, to the so-called Druidical remains of Western Europe; and what is still more curious, though described and figured nearly a quarter of a century ago by Col. Yule, the eminent oriental geographer, except by Sir John Lubbock they are scarely alluded to in the modern literature of pre-historic monuments. In the 'Bengal Asiatic Journal' for 1844, you will find Col. Yule's description of the Khasia people of East Bengal, an Indo-Chinese race, who keep cattle but drink no

milk, estimate distances traversed by the mouthfuls of pawn chewed en route, and amongst whom the marriage tie is so loose that the son commonly forgets his father, while the sister's son inherits property and rank. Dr. Thomson and I dwelt for some months amongst the Khasia people, now eighteen years ago, and found Col. Yule's account to be correct in all particulars. The undulatory eminences of the country, some 4-6,000 feet above the level of the sea, are dotted with groups of huge unpolished squared pillars, and tabular slabs supported on three or four rude piers.

"In one spot, buried in a sacred grove, we found a nearly complete circle of menhirs, the tallest of which was 30 feet out of the ground, 6 feet broad, and 2 feet 8 inches thick; and in front of each was a dolmen or cromlech of proportionately gigantic pieces of rock.

"The largest slab hitherto measured is 32 feet high, 15 feet broad, and 2 feet thick. Several that we saw had been very recently erected, and we were informed that every year some are put up, but not in the rainy season, which we spent in the country. The method of separating the blocks is by cutting grooves, along which fires are lighted, and into which, when heated, cold water is run, which causes the rock to split along the groove; the lever and rope are the only mechanical aids used in transporting and erecting the blocks. The objects of their erection are varioussepulture, marking spots where public events had occurred, &c. It is a curious fact that the Khasian word for a stone, 'Mau,' as commonly occurs in the names of their villages and places, as that of Man, Maen, and Men, does in those of Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, &c.; thus Mausmia signifies in Khasai the Stone of Oath-Mamloo, the Stone of Salt-Mauflong, the Grassy Stone, just as in Wales, Penmaenmawr signifies the Hill of the Big Stone; and in Brittany a Menhir is a Standing Stone, and a Dolmen a Table Stone, &c."

Dr. Hooker then passed on to the question of the site and management of the British Museum, which also had been under the consideration of the Council, in consequence of a resolution passed by Section D. A deputation had been sent by the Association, consisting of distinguished naturalists who had drawn the attention of Mr. Disraeli's Government to the matter. A similar deputation had waited on Mr. Disraeli ten years since, but no action had resulted. Dr. Hooker considered there was a graver objection to the present system than those which Mr. Andrew Murray had last year dwelt on, namely, that out of the forty-five trustees there are only three who have any special knowledge of Natural History, although the national collections in their care are the most valuable in Europe.

With regard to provincial museums, Dr. Hooker considered that there should be in such a place a detailed instructional series of dissected animals and plants, clearly laid out and named; and,

secondly, a distinct collection of the Natural History objects of the province. The curator should be able to give elementary demonstrations (not formal lectures) to schools and classes visiting the museum, for which a fee might be charged. The museum, too, should not be a dingy, ill-lighted place, but a bright, cheery building, placed if possible in a public park. Dr. Hooker never remembered to have heard of a provincial museum that was frequented by schools. He believed this did not arise from indifference to knowledge on the part of the upper classes, or of teachers, but to the generally uninstructive nature of the contents of these museums and their uninviting exterior and interior. He advocated strongly the removal of the Natural History collections of the British Museum to the townward end of the great parks, where persons might enjoy trees, flowers, and fountains after visiting the galleries, instead of as now being half stifled in the latter and then escaping only to still more dusty and choking streets.

The President now passed on to speak of recent progress in Botany. The researches of Unger on the Continent, and Dawson in Canada had greatly added to our knowledge of coal plants, but recently Binney and Carruthers had added still more by studying the intimate structure of these fossils. The Tertiary flora had been studied with great success by Heer, Saporta, Gaudin, and others. Dr. Hooker (evidently referring to our own Alum Bay leaf beds) did not think much importance could be attached to separated leaflets, which were abundant in many Tertiary strata. Three genera had been made by one botanist out of three leaflets of the single leaf of a plant allied to our blackberries. The greatest discoveries in Botany during the past ten years have been physiological. Dr. Hooker especially alluded to Darwin's researches on the Fertilization of Plants, and to his memoir on Climbing Plants, as also to a most important paper by Mr. Herbert Spencer "On the Circulation of the Sap and the Formation of Wood in Plants."

"The first-fruit of Darwin's labours was his volume on the 'Fertilization of Orchids,' undertaken to show that the same plant is never continuously fertilized by its own pollen, and that there are special provisions to favour the crossing of individuals. As his study of the British species advanced, he became so interested in the number, variety, and the complexity of the contrivances he met with, that he extended his survey to the whole family; and the result is a work, of which it is not too much to say, that it has thrown more light upon the structure and functions of the floral organs of this immense and anomalous family of plants, than had been shed by the labours of all previous botanical writers. It has further opened up entirely new fields of research, and discovered new and important principles, that apply to the whole vegetable kingdom.

"This was followed by his paper on the two well-known forms of the Primrose and Cowslip, popularly known as the pin-eyed and thrum-eyed: these forms he showed to be sexual and complementary; their diverse functions being to secure, by their mutual action, full fertilization, which he proved could only take place through insect agency. In this paper he established the existence of homomorphic or legitimate, and heteromorphic or illegitimate unions amongst plants, and detailed some curious observations on the structure of the pollen. The results of this, perhaps more than any other of Mr. Darwin's papers, took botanists by surprise; the plants being so familiar, their two forms of flower so well known to every intelligent observer, and his explanation so simple. For my own part I felt that my botanical knowledge of these homely plants had been but little deeper than Peter Bell's, to whom

A primrose by the river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.'

Analogous observations on the dimorphism of Flax and its allies,† formed a subsequent paper; during the course of which observations he made the wonderful discovery, that in the common flax, the pollen of one form of flower is absolutely impotent when applied to its own stigma, but invariably potent when applied to the stigma of the other form of flower; yet the pollens and stigmas of the two kinds are utterly undistinguishable under the highest powers of the microscope.

"His third investigation was a very long and laborious one on the Common Loosestrifet (Lythram Salicaria), which he showed to be trimorphic; this one species having three kinds of flowers, all annually abundantly produced, and as different as if they belonged to different species; each flower has, further, three kinds of stamens, differing in form and function. We have in this plant, then, six kinds of pollen, of which five at least are essential to complete fertility, and three distinct forms of style. To prove these various differences, and that the co-adaptation of all these stamens and pistils was essential to complete fertility, Mr. Darwin had to institute eighteen sets of observations, each consisting of twelve experiments, 216 in all. Of the labour, care, and delicacy required to guard such experiments against the possibility of error, those alone can tell who experimentally know how difficult it is to hybridize a large flowered plant of simple form and structure. The results in this case, and in those of a number of allied plants experimented on at the same time, are such as the author's sagacity had predicted; the

*Journal of the Linnean Society of London,' vol. vi., p. 77.

Journal of the Linnean Society,' vol. vii., p. 69.

‡ Ib., vol. viii., p. 169.