During the reign of Don Alonzo many great improvements were effected, and much scientific wealth added of inestimable value. That age may well be considered as the dawn of a new day, which would be succeeded by the bright refulgence of the planet of science, which is rapidly rising, though we doubt whether it will soon reach its meridian of glory. Had all the wise men who were collected together in those days in Seville and in Toledo possessed at their command all the resources and means which the middle ages produced, astronomy would most undoubtedly have made prodigious strides. The useful and advantageous application of astronomy to geography and the art of navigation is due, in France, Italy, and Portugal, to the use of these Tables. The union between physics and mechanism, the obvious and natural connection of these sciences with mathematics and astronomy, prepared the astounding events which took place in the last years of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth, and which proved of signal benefit to the welfare of the human race. I refer to the wonderful discoveries of the New World, and the first voyage of circumnavigation of the globe which was effected in that memorable age. Columbus, stepping beyond the limits of the genius of the ancients, destroys at one blow the system of Ptolemy, Tycho-Brahe, and other geographers, and confirms the Copernican theory. Magallanes, by a practical demonstration, firmly establishes the fact of the earth being a globe. By the side of Columbus rises the glorious form of Queen Isabella to claim a great portion of glory which belongs to the discovery of tropical America, a project which had been despised in Italy, in England, and in Portugal. And while wise men were engaged in the study of the heavenly spheres, these two men of extraordinary genius and energy, each great in his way, departed from these shores, and one of them from this very city of Seville, to open a way in the science of observation, a wide field of wealth, and new and extensive dominions to Spain. To the reigning monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, is due the high and merited renown of being the founders of our University. Two events in history will ever render the name of Isabella respected throughout all ages-the conquest of Granada, and the discovery of the New World. The one places the laurel wreath of a triumphant warrior upon her brow, for she, with invincible persistency, effected the complete expulsion of the Arab domination, unfurling the Castillian flag on the heights of the Alhambra of Granada. The other shed over her a more durable glory, far more beautiful and useful to the human race, and also far more worthy of Catholic monarchs-scientific renown and glory. And perchance the importance of these discoveries in the physical as well as in the intellectual world was not valued at its highest until our days, in which we are truly appreciating their immense advantages. Let us now take a survey of our times, which are not so ungrateful as is generally supposed. At the commencement of this century notable efforts were made to preserve in Seville her ancient renown of love of arts and letters. Various events-revolutions followed by violent reactions, incessant disquietude, and other evils-were powerless to prevent the free expansion of Andalusian genius fostered by the teaching of distinguished masters. These classes were attended by choice intellects, for, without noise or show, they bore fruit in producing the Pachecos, the Bravo Murillos, the Valdegamas, and many others who have become the pride and glory of this University. Scientific education was less brilliantly carried out, although there were not wanting some whose efforts in that direction were fruitful in sowing the seeds which are now springing up into hopeful plants. In the reign of Carlos III. a chair of mathematics was founded under the protection and vigilance of the Economic Society. As its professor was elected Don Pedro Henry, better known for his gift of imparting knowledge than for his writings. His public lectures were well attended, thus proving that the Andalusians were prepared for this study. Don José Rebollo carried to Madrid the light of the sciences; his expositions became as renowned as his works, which are written with a captivating clearness and great command of language. Don José Isidoro Morales, humanist, theologian, and deep mathematician, obtained equal laurels with the classic translator of "La Croix." Don Alberto Trista, after gaining a great reputation for learning in San Telmo, Bilboa, and in the Central University, returned to his native place to establish the study of mathematics. His works, his researches, his indefatigable labours as professor, are the greatest pride of the school to which he belonged, and which now respectfully guards his remains. His conversation was always instructive, whether at home or abroad, ever breathing an enthusiastic love for the study of the heavenly bodies, and a deep appreciation of the great minds who discovered and made manifest the laws of the universe "Do not allow," he would say, "their immortal works to slumber in the dust of libraries; they were not written to adorn those shelves, but to be read and studied and meditated upon; in them you will find the divine light that illumines the intellect." The cultivation of the sciences in our University was the charm of his declining days. In consequence of the reforms effected in 1845, by his former disciple the Marquis of Pidal, he lived to see established in all the Universities of the kingdom, the study of the exact sciences, and of physical and natural science, and to witness the improvements which more particularly took place in our own University. Laboratories were established, collections brought together, a botanical garden planted, and varied apparatus erected, all which solaced his last moments, and on witnessing all this he roused his failing energies, and in a deeply touching manner exclaimed, "Now I can die happily." How far we have profited by the labours and experience of our predecessors must be left for a subsequent letter, as I already fear that this is one over long, however concisely I have endeavoured to trace the progress of the University. CURRENT LITERATURE. Flowers and their Unbidden Guests. By Dr. A. Kerner, Professor of Botany in the University of Innsbruck, with a prefatory Letter by Charles Darwin. London: C. Kegan Paul and Co. Dr. Kerner has chosen to couch his botanical records in a form so alluring as to attract the merest amateur. Even to one who is ignorant of the language of botanists, there is so much that is charming in this essay that he will be tempted to take the trouble of discovering the inner meanings of some of the technicalities, or else perhaps he will more rashly swallow them blindly, like pills in a spoonful of jam. In any case he cannot but have gained a wider insight into the marvels of nature from the pages of this little volume. Nature is recognised as an artist; the poets find such sympathy and inspiration in her as to lead them to suspect her of being the greatest poet of them all. It has been left to the men of science to show her to us as an inimitable and most fascinating romancist. Mr. Ruskin has repeated to us a few of the romantic tales he has heard from her; his pictures of crystal life overflow with interest. The heavenly bodies thrill us by the element of romance which colours their great movements and mysterious life; and, passing from large to small, throughout nature we find the same fascination, whenever a clear-sighted student will pause to enlighten us about these truths which are stranger than fiction. In the life of the tiniest flower there is material for a couple of three volume novels. Dr. Kerner has only chosen a single phase of its bright and varied existence that of the modes in which it treats visitors whom it does not want, and the ingenuity which it exercises in devising protection against them when they belong to the obtrusive class for whom "Not at home" is not enough; and perhaps these unbidden guests may be forgiven for the pertinacity which gives the flower so much trouble: for they well know that the flower is always at home, and that her table is spread with sweetness. There are two prefaces to this book which somewhat enlighten us as to its position in botanic literature. Mr. Darwin, in the first of these, welcomes Kerner's essay as opening out "a highly original and curious field of research." The editor, Dr. Ogle, tells us, in the second, that "the subject is new, though a branch of the tree planted by Mr. Darwin." He then relates some observations of his own which he had made during a holiday in Italy; but before another year had brought an opportunity for making further investigations this essay of Kerner's appeared, "rendering all further evidence unnecessary." It is impossible to help quoting one from Dr. Kerner's collection of plant sketches. "Gardeners are well acquainted with a simple method of keeping off ants and woodlice from such plants as are exposed to their attacks when growing in a garden, though perfectly protected against them in the natural wild condition. They place the pots, in which the plants to be protected are grown, on other pots turned upside down, and these latter are put in a basin filled with water The plants are thus placed as it were upon an island Not a few flowers when growing wild are most perfectly protected against creeping insects by a similar method. In some of the Bromeliaceæ the rigid leaves are set in rosettes, and are more or less concave on their upper surface. Now each leaf is in such close contact with the two above it by the margins of its concavity as to form a funnel-shaped receptacle; and in these receptacles rain and dew not only collect, but are retained for a considerable period. In other species there is but one rosette, formed by the collective radical leaves. This forms a large central basin, which will retain any water that gets into it. The peduncle of the inflorescence springs from the centre of this basin, and is thus surrounded with water at its base. Thus the flowers of these plants, which are as a rule gaudy-coloured, nectariferous, and dependent on the visits of flying insects, are set as it were upon an isolating stool; and wingless creeping insects, if they would get at them, must either cross over the water of one of the numerous small funnels, or over the large central basin of the radical rosette, a task which they will naturally not undertake... "I have also noticed collections of water above the connate bases of the opposite leaves in the large gentians of the Alps. . . . The quantity of water in the sheaths formed by the leaves is in this case only small; still, it is quite sufficient to debar wingless insects from access to the flowers. . . . These gentians grow in places where at the period of blossoming there is very abundant dew on rainless days, and the leaves project horizontally, with their concavities turned upwards, just like so many buckets set out on purpose to catch it. Thus the water required to fill the basal leaf receptacles is never wanting; and on no single occasion when I examined such a gentian did I fail. to find water encircling the stem at the base of each internode." This seems a very simple contrivance, and so does that of plants which contain milky juice. When the ant attempts to pay an unwelcome visit to such a plant he is very soon glued down; and the account of his struggles is so dramatic as to excite one's sympathies. But these are not so interesting as the detailed accounts of which the book is full, of more delicate observations of the various manners of floral self-defence against unbidden and unwelcome guests. Among the numerous gift books for young people that appear at this time of the year, very few indeed will be found to equal Miss Buckley's beautiful little volume in genuine interest and permanent value. It may be said to bear a somewhat similar relation to the scientific treatise that the conscientious historical novel does to the formal history, combining a light and attractive style with thorough accuracy in all the facts and theories it expounds. Here, as in her former work on the History of Science, the authoress shows that she possesses the rare faculty of making difficult things easy to be understood, and of giving a living interest to everything she touches; while at the same time she knows where to draw the line, and does not attempt to deal with those more recondite branches of science which can only be mastered by hard study and experiment. The style of the work is well indicated by the happy choice of subjects for the several chapters: Sunbeams and the work they do; The Aerial Ocean in which we live; A Drop of Water on its Travels; The two great Sculptors, Water and Ice; the Voices of Nature, and how we hear them; The Life of a Primrose; the history of a Piece of Coal; Bees in the Hive; Bees and Flowers;-and all these are not treated vaguely and sketchily, as is so frequently the case when it is attempted to make science amusing and poetical, but thoroughly, so far as they go, every step in the exposition of the subject being made clear by means of familiar illustration and experiment, aided by excellent diagrams and picturesque woodcuts. To show how these various subjects are treated, let us take the first, and perhaps the most difficult of them, on "Sunbeams and the work they do," and show how our author contrives to make it both intelligible and interesting. The general effects of sun-rays and the causes of day and night are first picturesquely sketched, and then we have the distance the sun is from us (ninety-one millions of miles) thus illustrated: "The figures are SO enormous that you cannot really grasp them. But imagine yourself in an express train, travelling at the tremendous rate of sixty miles an hour, and never stopping. At that rate, if you wished to arrive at the sun today, you would have been obliged to start 171 years ago. That is, you must have set off in the early part of the reign of Queen Anne; and you must have gone on, never, never resting, through the reigns. of George I., George II., and the long reign of George III.; then through those of George IV., William IV., and Victoria, whirling on day and night at express speed; and at last, to-day, you would have reached the sun!" Every child who has travelled by railway, and has watched the express trains rushing past the stations, will be able, by this forcible illustration, to obtain some real idea of the enormous distance of the sun, because it is here measured in terms of the swiftest motion he can actually see, feel, and appreciate. The size of the sun is rendered intelligible by means of a diagram showing the disc of the sun almost filling the page, and a row of one hundred and six earths stretching across it, each represented by a minute black dot. And, still further to impress this important fact of size and bulk, we have another illustration: 'One of the best ways to form an idea of the whole size of the sun is to imagine it to be hollow, like an air-ball, and then see how many earths it would take to fill it. You would hardly believe that it would take one million three hundred and thirty-one thousand globes the size of our world squeezed together. Just think, if a huge giant could travel all over the universe and gather worlds, all as big as ours, and were first to make a heap of merely ten such worlds, how huge it would be! Then he must have a hundred such heaps of ten to make a thousand worlds; and then he must collect again a thousand times that thousand to make a million, and when he had stuffed them all into the sun-ball he would still only have filled three-quarters of it!" The quantity of light and heat emitted by the sun are each illus |