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The specific heats given are, as has been said, those for constant pressure, and to obtain those at constant volume it is necessary to divide by the constant k, connecting the specific heats of gases and vapours at constant pressure and constant volume.

The author gives the values he has used, (1) of the specific heats at constant pressure; these are taken either from Holborn and Austin's paper, or from Landolt, "Physikalisch Chemische Tabellen," 1905; (2) of the constant k; these are all taken from Landolt, pp. 407-8; (3) of the specific heats at constant volume.

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The specific heats calculated from the above data, of the gases generated by the explosion of the six propellants, are given in the tables embodying the results of the whole of the experiments for each propellant, and in the tables are also given the temperatures of explosion deduced from equations (1) and (2), and here again it must be remembered that the temperatures with which artillerists are chiefly concerned are those due to densities varying approximately between 0.17 and 0-23.

The Italian ballistite, which from equation (1) shows the highest temperature, commences at the density of 0.05 with 4943 C., this temperature hardly varying at all until the density of 0.25 is reached, when it slowly but regularly increases to about 5000° C. at d=0.45. Cordite Mark I., commencing at 4742° C., with a very slight fall, is practically constant up to d=0.30, after which it rises somewhat rapidly to a temperature of 4921° C. at d=0.45, and to 5065 C. at d=0.50.

When, however, the temperatures given by equation (2) are reached some very remarkable differences are met with. It is found that at the higher densities and pressures there is generally a very tolerable accordance in the temperatures obtained from the two formulæ, but as the density and pressure diminish the divergence becomes in all cases considerable, but very greatly more with the explosives which develop very high temperatures, and which give rise to large percentages of carbonic anhydride.

The only construction the author is able to put upon the close approximation of temperature given by the two formulæ at high densities and pressures, and the wide differences which exist in some of the explosives at low densities, is that at high densities dissociation of the carbonic anhydride is prevented by the very high pressure, and that the great difference between, for instance, Italian ballistite and nitrocellulose R. R. at, say, the density of 0.1, is due, firstly, to the difference of the temperature at which the nascent gases are generated, and, secondly, to the proportion of CO, which is subject to dissociation. The theory submitted is as follows:

The nascent gases are generated at temperatures approximately as given by equation (1).

Under the low densities and pressures at the very high temperatures with which we are concerned, the CO, and possibly some H,O are partially dissociated, giving rise to the fall in temperature exhibited by the results obtained from equation (2) at low densities. At high densities, as already pointed out, the two equations give in some cases accordant results, in all cases tolerable agreement; it therefore appears to the author to be reasonable to suppose that the facts he has recorded are due to partial dissociation at low densities and pressures, which dissociation is prevented by the very high pressures ruling at densities of o-40, 0-45,

and 0.50. As no free oxygen is ever found in the analyses in cooling down, any free oxygen due to dissociation must have recombined, and the heat lost by dissociation regained. The

re-combination must, however, be very gradual, as no discontinuity is observed in the cooling curves.

It is then pointed out that a certain amount of confirmation is given to the view taken by the fact that if the explosives be arranged according to the amount of heat generated, derived from equation (1), regard being also had to the amount of CO, found, it will be found that the differences between the two formulæ decrease approximately as the factors to which the author has referred decrease, and a table is given showing these differences.

"On the Julianiaceæ, a New Natural Order of Plants." By W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S.

The Julianiaceae comprise two genera and five species. They are resiniferous, tortuously branched, deciduous, dicecious shrubs or small trees, having alternate, exstipulate, imparipinnate leaves, from about one to three decimetres long, clustered at the tips of the flowering branches and scattered along the short barren shoots. The flowers are small, green or yellow-green, quite inconspicuous, and the males are very different from the females. The male inflorescence is a more or less densely branched axillary panicle or compound catkin, from 2 cm. to 15 cm. long, with weak, thread-like, hairy branches and pedicels. The male flowers are numerous, 3 mm. to 5 mm. in diameter, and consist of a simple, very thin perianth, divided nearly to the base into four to nine narrow, equal segments, and an equal number of stamens alternating with the segments. In structure and appearance they are almost exactly like those of the common oak. The female inflorescence is similar in structure to that of the sweet chestnut, consisting of an almost closed, usually five-toothed involucre, borne on a flattened pedicel and containing three or four collateral flowers, of which the two outside ones are, perhaps, always abortive.

At the flowering stage, the female inflorescences, including the narrow flattened pedicel and the exserted styles, are about 2 cm. long, and, as they are seated close in the axils of the crowded leaves and of the same colour, they are easily overlooked. The female flowers are destitute of a perianth, and consist of a flattened, one-celled ovary, terminated by a trifid style and containing a solitary ovule. The ovule in both genera is a very peculiar structure. That of Juliania, in the flowering stage, is a thin, flat, obliquely horseshoe-shaped or unequally two-lobed body, about 2 mm. in its greatest diameter, attached to the base of the cell. At a little later stage, in consequence of unequal growth, it is horizontally oblong, nearly as large as the mature seed, that is, 6 mm. to 8 mm. long, and almost symmetrically two-lobed at the top. A vascular bundle or strand runs from the point of attachment to the placenta upwards near the margin into one of the lobes. In this lobe the embryo is tardily developed, and at this stage it is more or less enclosed in the opposite lobe, the relations of the two being as nozzle and socket to each other. It is assumed that the whole of this body, with the exception of the lobe in which the embryo is formed, is a funicle with a unilaterally developed appendage, which breaks up and is absorbed during the development of the ovule into seed.

The ovule of Orthopterygium is very imperfectly known, but the attachment appears to be lateral and the funicular appendage cup-shaped at the basal end, bilamellate upwards, and more or less enclosing the embryoniferous lobe.

The compound fruits of Juliania are samaroid in form, the wing being the flattened pedicel, at the base of which it disarticulates from the undifferentiated part of the pedicel. They vary from 4 cm. to 7 cm. in length by 1 cm. to 2 cm. in width. Externally they strongly resemble the samaroid pods of certain genera of Leguminosæ, notably those of Platypodium and Myroxylon. The involucre itself, of the largest fruits seen, is only about 1 cm. deep by 2 cm. wide. It is composed of very hard tissues, and is quite indehiscent. Only quite young fruit of Orthopterygium is known. In this the flattened pedicel is narrow, straight, and equilateral, from 6 cm. to 7 cm. long and about 1 cm. wide.

The nuts of Juliania are almost orbicular, biconvex, hairy on the outside, and have a very hard endocarp. The solitary exalbuminous seed is circular or oblong, 6 mm. to 10 mm. long, compressed, with a smooth, thin testa. The embryo is horizontal, with thin, plano-convex, more or less

oblique, obscurely lobed cotyledons, which are epigæous in germination, and a long ascending radicle applied to the edges of the cotyledons.

So far as at present known Juliania is confined to Mexico, and the various species occur in isolated localities between about 17° 40' and 23° N. lat., and 97° and 104° W. long., and at altitudes of about 1500 feet to 5500 feet.

The habitat of the Peruvian Orthopterygium Huaucui is 2000 miles distant from the nearest locality of any species of Juliania. The exact position of the only place in which it has been found cannot be given, but it is in the Province of Canta, in the Department of Lima, between 11° and 12° S. lat.

PARIS.

Academy of Sciences, September 3.-M. A. Chauveau in the chair.-Observations of the Kopff comet made with the bent equatorial at the Algiers Observatory: M. F. Sy. Details of observations made on August 24 and 25. The comet appeared as a round nebulosity, with a nucleus, the lustre of which was comparable to a star of the twelfth magnitude.-Observations of the Kopff comet (1906e) made with the bent equatorial (32 cm.) of the Lyons Observatory : J. Guillaume. Results for six nights, August 26-31.-The growth of multiform functions: Georges Rémoundos.Description of an autocollimator level with a mercury horizon: MM. Claude and Driencourt. The description is accompanied with a diagram of the apparatus, for which a greatly increased accuracy is claimed.-The determination of the melting points of the alloys of aluminium with lead and bismuth by means of thermoelectric pyrometers: H. Pécheux. The melting points were studied by two couples, platinum 10 per cent. platinum-iridium and nickel copper. The temperatures given by each couple for eight alloys are stated, and the agreement is sufficiently good for the author to suggest that the nickel-copper couple may render good service for commercial uses.-The action of nascent hypoiodous acid on unsaturated acids. Iodolactones: J. Bougault.-Starchy material studied with the aid of our knowledge of the colloidal state: G. Malfitano. -The isomorphism of northupite with tychite: A.

de Schulten.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

Linnean Society, July 25. — Mr. Thomas Steel, president, in the chair.-The botany of north-eastern New South Wales: F. Turner. The paper gives a general account of the indigenous vegetation and of the exotic weeds of the country comprised between the New South Wales-Queensland border and 32° S. lat.; the S. Pacific on the east, and 152° 20' or 151° E. long. From a botanical point of view, the region in question is one of the most fertile and interesting sections of country in Australia, and a census of its semi-tropical flora is estimated to comprehend 734 genera and 1767 species.-A review of the New South Wales species of Halorrhagaceæ, as described in Prof. A. K. Schindler's monograph (1905), with the description of a new species: J. H. Maiden and E. Betche. The paper contains a list of New South Wales species of Halorrhagaceæ, showing the important changes made by Prof. Schindler, and gives description of a new species, H. verrucosa, from Woodburn, Richmond River, the specific name being given from the character of the fruit. Its nearest ally in Schindler's classification is H. tenuis, and in Bentham's H. micrantha, R.Br.-Notes on the hymenopterous genus Megalyra, with descriptions of new species: W. W. Froggatt. A general account of the members of this curious genus of parasitic Hymenoptera is given, with notes on the species previously described, their general structure, and the longicorn beetles the larvæ of which they parasitise. Eight new species are added to the seven previously described from Australia.-Description of a new tick of the family Argasida: W. W. Froggatt. The common 'fowl-tick,' Argas americanus, has been acclimatised in Australia for more than twenty years. indigenous species is now described. This Argasid is common in the clay nests of the fairy martin, Petrochelidon (Lagenoplastes) ariel, and is usually to be found under the lining of feathers and grass resting against the clay in the nests containing the young birds, and for some time after the nestlings have flown. The life-history of Lestes leda : R. J. Tillyard. The species is shown to be double

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brooded. The male assists the female in the act of oriposition, seizing her round the neck. The method of oviposition is discussed, and various statements that have been made by different entomologists from time to time a shown to differ from the results of observations on this species.

CALCUTTA.

Asiatic Society of Bengal, August 1.-Bibliomancy, divination, superstitions amongst the Persians: Lieut.Colonel D. C. Phillott.-Gentiana Húgelii, Griseb.. redescribed Dr. Otto Stapf. In 1835 Baron Karl von Hügel collected this gentian in Kashmir, and the specimens are preserved at Vienna. They have never been examined by writers on Indian gentians, and because Grisebach did not describe them quite accurately the species has never been fully understood. A new description is therefore necessary, and is offered with illustrations.-Swertia angustifolia, Ham., and its allies: I. H. Burkill. An account of Swertia angustifolia, with pulchella and affinis, S. corymbosa, S. zeylanica, and the whole of their close alliance, based on an examination of all the material available at the herbaria at Kew, at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, at the Jardin des Plantes Paris, and at Shibpur, Saharanpur, Madras, 3rd Peradeniya, Ceylon. Some of the species defined are used medicinally for the true Chiretta.-Notes on some rare and interesting insects added to the Indian Museum collection during the year 1905-6: C. A. Paiva. Notes on specmens, chiefly of Hymenoptera and Hemiptera, collected in Calcutta and the Darjiling and Purneah districts, together with a list of the Hymenoptera received from the Seistin Boundary Commission.-Bulbophyllum Burkilli: a hitherto undescribed species from Burma: Captain A. T. Gage. A description of a new Bulbophyllum from the BurmoSiamese frontier, Tenasserim, which has flowered in the Royal Botanic Garden, Shibpur.

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