It is often said that the Sun exhibits a granulated structure. If we wish to realise in the most precise manner what is meant by the word “granulation” as applied to the structure of the Sun, we must abandon the method of projection and examine the Sun directly with a powerful eyepiece, taking advantage of a moment when the atmosphere is perfectly calm, and before the eyepiece has had time to get hot. It may then be seen that the Sun’s surface is covered with a multitude of little grains, nearly all of about the same size, but of different shape, though for the most part more or less oval. The small interstices which separate these grains form a network which is dark without being positively black. Secchi considered it difficult to name any known object which exactly answers in appearance to this structure, but he thought that we can find something resembling it in examining with a microscope milk which has been a little dried up, and the globules of which have lost their regular form. Exceptionally good atmospheric conditions are under all circumstances indispensable for the study of these details. In point of fact, there is a mysterious uncertainty about the normal condition of the Sun’s surface, in a visual sense, which a few years ago engendered a very vehement controversy, and led to the use of such expressions as “willow leaves,” “rice grains,” “sea beach,” and “straw thatching,” to indicate what was seen. All these words are too precise to be quite suitable to be taken literally, but perhaps, on the whole, “rice grains” is not altogether a bad expression to recall what certainly seems to be the granular surface of the Sun as we see it. By making use of moderate magnifying powers, what we see will often convey the impression of a multitude of white points on a black network. This is very apparent during the first few moments that the telescope is brought to bear on the Sun, but its clearness quickly passes away because the eye gets fatigued, and the lenses becoming warm the air in the telescope tube gets disturbed because also warmed. Sometimes the appearance is a little different from that just described, and along with the white and brilliant points little black holes are intermixed. Oftentimes the grains appear as if suspended in a black network and heaped together in knots more or less shaded and more or less broad. Sometimes the grains exhibit a very elongated form, especially in the neighbourhood of the spots. It is these elongated forms to which Nasmyth applied the term “willow leaf,” whilst Huggins thought “rice grains” a very suitable expression.