256 notices or books. 



Committee appointed by the Natural History Society of Montreal, 

 Canada. The first number of the second volume (March, 1857), which 

 we have just received, contains four geological, two zoological, and two 

 botanical original articles, besides extracts from other periodicals, and, 

 what more especially interests us, the Proceedings of the Botanical 

 Society of Montreal. We may here at once mention that that learned 

 body has determined to erect a suitable monument over the grave of 

 Frederick Pursh, the author of the ■ Plora Americse Septentrionalis, ' 

 who it appears died at Montreal. Subscriptions may be placed into 

 the hands of the Committee appointed for that purpose. (Address, 

 J. G. Barnston, 40, Little St. James's Street, Montreal.) So little is 

 generally known of Pursh, after he had completed his c Flora/ that we 

 are tempted to make the following extract : — " The success of his pub- 

 lication, and the interest excited by his discoveries, induced Pursh, 



under favourable auspices, further to prosecute his researches in the 

 Canadas. He accordingly arrived in the Lower Province with the view 

 of forming a complete herbarium of Canadian plants, of ascertaining 

 the natural resources of the soil, and improving the system of horticul- 

 ture. His labours however were not of long duration. After having 

 explored a large portion of Eastern Canada, and made a considerable 

 collection (subsequently destroyed by fire), he died at Montreal, on the 

 '11th of July, 1820, aged 46 years,' so destitute of means that the 

 expenses of his burial and other outlays were defrayed by his friends. 

 This information we gather from the Proceedings of the Botanical So- 

 ciety, a source from which we also learn something about the " Botani- 

 cal affinities of the fossil Sternbergice" " Professor Williamson," we 

 are told, " has satisfactorily proved that some at least of the species 

 are casts of the pith of trees of the Pine family, the Coniferous trees of 

 the coal period having differed from our modern Pines in possessing 

 large medullary cylinders." A publication of recent observations on 

 the subject is promised by Professor Dawson. The two original bota- 

 nical articles of which we have spoken are, " Remarks upon the Geo- 

 graphical Distribution of Ranunculacea throughout the British Posses- 

 sions of North America," by George Barnston, and " General Remarks 

 on the Study of Nature, especially Botany," by J. B. In the next 

 issue, a paper on the " Algse of Bermuda," by the Rev. A. F. Kemp, 

 is to appear. — B. S. 



