The Scottish Naturalist. 33 t 



ing the surface merely : waters have decreased ; the courses of 

 streams have been prolonged ; bog, morass, shallow lake, and 

 river-channel have become dry and firm land. Such are the 

 changes which the old names of places indicate. It is for the 

 geologist to say whether his researches point to the same or to 

 different conclusions. 



It is only a few names and places I have been able to refer to. 

 There is a wide and interesting and almost untrodden field in 

 all the localities around us. Permit me, in closing, to enter a 

 protest against a too common practice of changing an ancient 

 name into a modern one which is thought to be more genteel, 

 or at least personally more important. When names com- 

 memorative of some remote historical event, or descriptive of 

 some ancient physical features, are thrown aside, and in their 

 room are substituted such as Brownsfield, Jonesville, and 

 Robinsonhall, the modern appellations will indeed tell a distant 

 posterity, if they ever reach them, that the places thus designated 

 were once on a time, and in some way or other, connected with 

 the excellent individuals known respectively as Brown, Jones, 

 and Robinson ; but even Brown, Jones, and Robinson being 

 judges, the information thus handed down to the future antiqua- 

 rian or geologist cannot be regarded as equal in value to that 

 which it has supplanted. 



VARIOUS NOTES. 



Those of us who were favoured with his acquaintance will sincerely regret 

 to learn the death of Mr Robert Hislop, one of the last survivors of the old 

 school of Scottish entomologists, which took place on 9th June. Mr Hislop's 

 specialty was the order Coleoptera, in which he made many important dis- 

 coveries of new British species. Though he did not himself write much (in 

 our pages only three or four notes appear from his pen), he contributed 

 privately much information that was published by others, and was always 

 ready to assist from his stores of knowledge. His genial and unaftected man- 

 ner will long be remembered by those who had the pleasure of accompanying 

 him in his entomological rambles. Mr Hislop's name is commemorated in 

 the beetle Atomaria Hislopi. 



The Sixth Annual Conference of the Cryptogamic Society of Scotland is to 

 be held at Glasgow in the third or fourth week of September. From the 

 well-known energy of the Glasgow naturalists it is expected that the meeting 

 will be successful in every way. Particulars of the arrangements will be 

 announced soon. The usual meeting of the English mycologists is an- 

 nounced to be held at Hereford in the week beginning 4th October. 



