HARDWiCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



103 



shall, London) has been published some time, but we 

 have not been able to notice it. It was ■written by 

 that well-known Cornish naturalist Mr. Jonathan 

 Couch, and this edition contains an account of the 

 life and labours of the author, by his son, Mr. 

 Thomas Q. Couch. The legends and folk-lore of 

 that out-of-the-way corner of England have an 

 attraction for archaeologists possessed by no other 

 corner of this country. Mr. Thomas Couch has 

 here presented us with an admirable and brief 

 biography of a man whom we had long thus wished 

 to know. The list of Cornish plants appended is 

 valuable, having been noticed by the late Mr. Couch. 

 The editor has made many additions to the popular 

 antiquities, and altogether has produced a very 

 readable and useful little volume. 



" The Ocean World," by Louis Eiguier, just 

 published by Cassell & Co., is a wonderful improve- 

 ment on the first and larger edition, with all its 

 inaccuracies, for it is edited (we may say re-written) 

 by Dr. Peicival Wright. It always seemed to us a 

 pity that such beautiful and copious illustrations 

 should have been got up to float off an incorrect and 

 incomplete, although attractively written, account 

 of the animated wonders of the great deep. Now 

 that objection has been removed, and Dr. P. Wright's 

 edition of the " Ocean World " has the merit of 

 being scientifically correct and equally attractive. 

 The present volume is one admirably adapted for a 

 gift-book. 



" Ozone and Antozone ; their History and 

 Nature," by Dr. Cornelius B. Eox (London : J. & 

 A. Churchill), is a book dealing with a subject out- 

 side our own line of research, and yet nearly 

 approaching it in many respects. It appears to 

 treat ably on the entire question, historical and 

 chemical, and applies the result to the practical 

 life of our large towns and cities. Those interested 

 in this important question, therefore, will find in 

 this handsomely got-up volume all the information 

 they need. Whether they accept the theories of 

 the author or not, they cannot fail to admire his 

 industry. 



Neither inclination, modesty, nor space allows 

 us to do more than remark that the " Geological 

 Stories," many of which originally appeared in this 

 journal, are now re-published in a; volume, with 

 considerable additions, and the pictorial aid of 200 

 illustrations, by Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly. 



RECORDS OE RARE PLANTS. 



AS I had seen no answer to my plan in Science- 

 Gossip some time back, proposing the forma- 

 tion of a Botanical Record Club, I thought that 

 the proposal had not found much favour in the eyes 

 of the botanical readers of Science- Gossip. 

 I am glad to see such a good botanist as Mr. E. 



Arnold Lees think that my plan might be carried 

 out, though objections and obstacles stand in the 

 way; but none, I think, are insurmountable. So with 

 your leave, Mr. Editor, I will give a few more par- 

 ticulars. The use of such a society is obvious. 

 We are now troubled in our manuals, guide- 

 books, &c., with localities of plants, which are 

 erroneous, but which have been copied from book 

 to book, and when we search they cannot be found, 

 thereby causing much disappointment and trouble • 

 and the evil is, that they are not remedied, and 

 others are continually falling into the same error. 

 Also that the localities where the plants ought to 

 be found, are not known to many. In these days of 

 drainage of bogs and marshes, and the ploughing 

 up of waste land and commons, the habitats are 

 continually changing, and required to be observed 

 anew and re-recorded. I do not agree with 

 Mr. Grindou in his Manual, as I think there is 

 plenty of ground which might be used without 

 eradicating our rarest plants. The spots where 

 they grow seem always to be taken first. lu this 

 county (Herts) the only small bogs that it possessed 

 (only a few acres) are now drained, and almost 

 all our bog-plants, such as Drosera, Anagallis, and 

 some rare Carices, are gone; but still theEloia 

 contains the localities uncontradicted, and it still 

 gives a deal of trouble to any one searching after 

 them, as I did myself. It is to remedy these evils 

 that the club would be eminently useful. 



It is a well-known fact that most (I may say all) 

 coiinties jn England possess some few botanists, and 

 I think that in each of them two or three could 

 be found to make members of the club ; — practical 

 botanists, I mean, not mere collectors, whose re- 

 ports would be trustworthy and reliable. 



Such botanists would not object to send a 

 specimen of each plant reported on their list to be 

 identified by some one appointed for that purpose. 

 The plan to form the club would be : — 



1st. To ^et as many botanists (some in each 

 county if practicable) as possible to become mem- 

 bers ; and no doubt there will be plenty when the 

 object of it is known. 



2nd. To choose one of the best botanists from 

 among the members, one who has plenty of leisure 

 time, to act as identifier of the plants sent, and 

 another as recorder of localities. 



3rd. That every member should send, if possible, 

 a single specimen of each plant that he reports, with 

 the exact locality and latest date the plant was 

 observed, and whether it has been known to grow 

 there for any considerable length of time. 



In case of very rare plants, where there are but 

 few specimens, it is a question whether the exact 

 locality should be published, for fear of extermina- 

 tion. 



4ih. That a report of the year's work should he 

 printed at the end of the year. A small subscrip- 



