The frond of L. gibba is eleven inches long, and four broad; of the hybrid thirteen inches long, and five broad; and of B corcovadense twenty-six inches long and seven broad. The spores of the hybrid are smaller and more irregular in shape than those of B corcovadense: some of them have been sown, and are now in the prothullus stage. A well known fern-grower, who has seen the plants, said that he obtained a very similar hybrid, about six years ago, between L. gibba and B. brasiliense, (a species allied to, if not identical with, B corcovadense,) which he exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society under the name of L. hybrida. He has since lost it, The correctness of his explanation was, of course, disputed at the time, but this independent production of what is nearly the same species seems to confirm it very strongly.—W. B. Grove, B.A.
Gleanings.
The British Association.—It is expected that the meeting for 1879 will be held at Sheffield.
A Course of Instruction in Zooigmy by Professor Huxley, assisted by Mr. T. J. Parker, is announced as in preparation, and will be published in parts, by Messrs. Macmillan and Co.
The Great Meteor of Nov. 23rd.—Capt. G. L. Tupman has been investigating the path of this remarkable object. In Symons' Meteorological Magazine for January, he writes:—‘I have made out its path very satisfactorily from a great many fairly accordant observations. It began as an ordinary shooting star, ninety (nautical) miles high, five miles north of Derby, became wonderfully brilliant fifty miles over Liverpool, and burst at the height of twenty-six miles, fifteen miles N.N.W. of Great Orme's Head. From no less than twenty-five estimations of its duration, the velocity was between eighteen and nineteen miles per second."
The Times and Meteorology.—The energy of the Times in publishing daily a map showing the principal elements of the weather at six p.m. on the preceding evening was specially noticed in the evidence given before the Royal Commission on Meteorological Observations, whose report (Blue Book, 1877, price 2s. 4d.) should be studied by all who are interested in the progress of meteorology. The publication now before us (The Times' Resister of Events in 1877) is another step in the same direction, One page is given to each day. In a narrow column on the right-hand side we have the leading British and Foreign events printed in bold capitals. On the left-hand is a map showing the condition of the weather over these islands at eight a.m., together with the "Remarks" of the Meteorological Office thereon. At the end of each week the curves of the self-registering instruments at Kew Observatory are given. Useful and full summaries of the Parliamentary Session and the year generally are given at the end of the volume. We would suggest that another year the publication should be deferred (if necessary) for another week or so, that the averages and totals for the year (barometric pressure, temperature, rainfall, &c.) might be added.
Ilford Fossils.—The very fine collection formed by the late Dr. Richard Payne Cotton, F.G.S., has, we learn from Nature, been
