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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



BOTANY. 



The Tourist's Flora.— In the September number 

 of Science-Gossip, Bernard Hobson, in his enume- 

 ration of choice books on Botany, mentions the 

 " Tourist's Flora," by Joseph Woods, F.A.S., F.L.S., 

 F.G.S. It is stated to be a descriptive catalogue of 

 the flowering plants and ferns of the British Islands, 

 France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the 

 Italian Islands. Reeve, Benham, & Reeve, 1850. This 

 book, until I ceased taking my annual botanical 

 excursions abroad, was for twenty years my constant 

 companion in the middle and south of Europe ; it 

 was most useful, as containing a brief, plain, and 

 concise description of all plants within the limits 

 above mentioned. In his introduction, the author 

 says the work has no pretensions to originality, but 

 gives a description from the works of different 

 botanists, making it clear and distinctive, and at 

 the same time, condensing the whole as much as 

 possible, so as to be comprised in a single volume, 

 of a bulk not inconvenient for the use of the 

 travellers. The first eighty-two pages give the genera 

 according to the Linnsean System. He says the 

 characters of the natural order are so little definite, 

 that it is almost impossible for the student to deter- 

 mine a plant by them. He has therefore thought it 

 best to give a clavis analytica of the Linnrean 

 system, and follow it in the arrangement of the 

 genera by giving a reference to the species in the 

 arrangement of the natural orders (containing 434 

 pages) with a copious index. The work is not elemen- 

 tary, but to a travelling tourist who has made some 

 proficiency in botany, will be found of the greatest 

 assistance, and quite portable. The book is, I 

 understand, out of print ; but I am assured that, from 

 the numerous applications, a new and improved 

 edition would meet with a ready sale to the con- 

 stantly increasing number of English travelling 

 botanists ; and especially if the authors' names were 

 added. The two systems being comprised in the 

 same work, will enable the reader to select the one 

 he finds most convenient in finding the genera and 

 species. — T. B. fV., Brightoii. 



Daucus Carota. — As a geologist, I am rather out 

 of my element in botany, and hesitate to express an 

 opinion upon the latter subject; but to those who, 

 like myself, are but beginners, are not the descriptions 

 which we find of the above-named plant in elementary 

 books of botany, somewhat misleading? According 

 to every book which I have yet seen, we are taught to 

 consider the central red floret a reliable distinction. 

 Yet surely this is not the case. Not only do the red 

 petals often early drop off — but often no red florets 

 are to be found on the plant when perfect. I have 

 compared a good many specimens lately. Once, 

 having pulled up a well-charactered specimen, I 

 turned it upside down to examine the root, and on 



replacing it in a natural position all the red florets, 

 three in number, were gone. Other specimens, 

 differing in nothing else but the central floret, had 

 a single large white floret, in the centre of the side of 

 the outer florets of the outer umbels. Others had 

 single florets of every shade of pale pink, even so pale 

 as scarcely to be distinguished from white. Others had 

 partial umbels in the centre with two, three, or even 

 four small white florets. The roots of all had the same 

 carroty smell when bruised. The locality is sixteen 

 miles from the sea, so that I could not have found D. 

 maritimits. One half of these specimens were till lately 

 supposed by myself and others to be wild parsnip or 

 other umbellifers, from which they differ in growth, 

 foliage, inflorescence, and habitat. — IV. Doiunes. 



GEOLOGY. 



A Museum for Stafford. — We hope the day is 

 not far distant when every town will have a museum 

 of natural history. Mr. C. L. Wragge, of Cheadle, 

 has just presented to the town of Stafford a fine col- 

 lection of geological, ethnological, and natural history 

 specimens, collected in various parts of the world, and 

 we hope it will prove the nucleus for a good museum. 



Rhinoceros Tichorhinus.— A specimen of the 

 head of this extinct animal has just been placed in 

 the St. Petersburg museum. It is well preserved, 

 and still covered with patches of hair. It is part of 

 an almost complete carcase which has been preserved 

 in the frozen state, like that of the well-known mam- 

 moth, whose hair and eyeballs are in the same museum, 

 and it comes from the banks of a tributary of the Yena. 



"The Carboniferous Limestone and Cefn-y- 

 Fedw sandstone of the country between Llanymynech 

 and Minera, North Wales." Under this somewhat 

 uncouth title, Mr. George H. Morton, F.G.S. , the 

 Hon. Sec. of the Geological Society of Liverpool, 

 has written a capital monograph of the geology of 

 the most interesting part of the lower carboniferous 

 formation of North Wales. A good deal of the 

 matter has already appeared in the proceedings of 

 the Liverpool Geological Society, but it is very 

 pleasant to be able to read the description in the 

 present unbroken fashion. Mr. Morton has for years 

 past made the district in question the scene of his 

 summer rambles and investigations. This hand- 

 somely got-up little volume bears abundant marks 

 of good work. It is illustrated by an excellent large 

 photograph (as a frontispiece) of the outcrop of the 

 carboniferous limestone of Craig-yr-Ogof, and two 

 others of a smaller but full-page size, of the most 

 important natural sections, as well as thirteen wood- 

 cut illustrations of quarries and sections. We con- 

 gratulate Mr. Morton on the excellent way in which 

 he now presents his labours to the geological world. 

 The work is published by David Bogue, 3 St. Martin's 

 Place, London. 



