208 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Sept. 1, 1870. 



velopment shall extend into the future, just as 

 organic life has been developed in the past ! Such 

 are a few of the reminiscences of a piece of slate ! 

 Of the agencies which uplifted me into a mountain- 

 ridge, which consolidated the fine mud where I was 

 born into hard slate, I cannot tell. These are all 

 included in those chemical and geological changes 

 which took place after my birth. But, whilst I 

 have thus endeavoured to administer to the intel- 

 lectual curiosity of man, I cannot forget that it is 

 to these subsequent alterations that I am what I am, 

 and that I now assist in roofing in and protecting 

 the latest introduction of nature in the form of 

 man ! 



LOCAL TRANSACTIONS. 



Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' 1 Field 

 Club for 1809. Hereford, 1870. 



This annual volume is fully up to the- stan- 

 dard of its predecessors, and gives evidence of a 

 healthy and vigorous club. The illustrations are 

 excellent. Photographs of the remarkable trees of 

 Herefordshire are continued, and so are Dr. Bull's 

 characteristic figures of esculent fungi. The pre- 

 sent volume contains Hydmim repandum, Fistulina 

 hepatica,'s.nd Agaricus Orcella and A. primuln$,Dr. 

 Bull considering the two latter to be specifically 

 distinct. Mr. W. G. Smith's plate of Cortinarius 

 russus leaves nothing to be desired, and his "Clavis 

 Agaricinorum " appears here, as well as in See- 

 mann's "Journal of Botany." The "List of British 

 Agaricini" including 701 species, is a very useful 

 appendix to the "Clavis." If continued in this 

 spirit, the series of Woolhope Transactions is likely 

 to prove a valuable contribution to the natural 

 history of Herefordshire. 



Proceedings of the Birmingham Natural History 

 and Microscopical Society for 1869. Birmingham, 

 1870. 



The preface explains all that needs explanation 

 of this series. " This volume owes its origin to a 

 desire frequently expressed by the members of our 

 Society to possess some permanent record of its 

 proceedings, and comprises the substance of some 

 of the papers read during the year 1 809, together 

 with a brief reference to others which it is impossi- 

 ble now to reproduce or unnecessary to present in 

 an extended form. A large portion of the most 

 useful work of the Society being performed through 

 the agency of its several sections, it is a source of 

 some regret that it has been found impracticable to 

 include much valuable local information collected 

 as the result of their labours ; but the committee 

 hope to present much matter of this kind in subse- 

 quent volumes. Meanwhile the lists which form 

 the latter portion of the present publication must 



be regarded as a first instalment towards a com- 

 plete record of the Flora, Fauna and geological 

 treasures of our district, the materials for which the 

 several sections are steadily engaged in accumula- 

 ting." This is a move in the right direction. The 

 lists include the flowering plants and ferns, mosses, 

 Lepidoptera and Mollusca. Go on and prosper ! 



LOTUS. 



"T70UR correspondent Mr. Hall, in a short 

 -*- paper on the " Lotus," says : — " But it is sup- 

 posed that the true sacred lotus of Egyptian an- 

 tiquity belongs to the Nelumbiacese, or Water-bean 

 family, indicated as Nelumbium spsciosum, a point 

 that may be considered definitely settled from the 

 fact that it is also 'called by the Greek word for 

 bean." And in a little book supplied to visitors at 

 Kew Gardens, Mr. Oliver writes: — "The sacred 

 lotus of the early Egyptians {Nelumbium speciosuni) 

 is still regarded as an emblem of sanctity by the 

 Hindoos and Chinese." But Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 

 after quoting Plutarch : — " They do indeed charac- 

 terize ' the rising sun ' (the god Ehiva, the Sun, the 

 Day, the Dawn) " as though " it sprang every day 

 afresh out of the lotus plant," goes on, " I must, in 

 conclusion, make this remark on the lotus plant, on 

 which he is represented seated — that it is always 

 the 'Nymphean Lotus,' and in no instance the 

 'Nelumbi.' And though this last is mentioned by 

 several among the plants of Egypt (Pliny describes 

 it as growing in the Nile, — one of the wild plants 

 which abound so plentifully in Egypt), it is never 

 introduced into the sculptures as a sacred emblem, 

 nor, indeed, as a production of the country ; a fact 

 which goes far to disprove one of the supposed 

 analogies of the Egyptian and Indian objects of 

 veneration. With regard to the common lotus, so 

 frequently represented as a favourite flower in the 

 hands of the Egyptians (as the rose or others might 

 be in the hands of any modern people), there is no 

 evidence of its having been sacred, much less an 

 object of worship." The Nelumbium, from its 

 lofty stems, large leaves, and elegant flowers, seems 

 so much more worthy 'of the affection, if not the 

 reverence, with which it is said to have been an- 

 ciently regarded, and of the admiration which it 

 now commands, in comparison with its less aspiring 

 relative and neighbour at Kew, that it would be 

 pleasant to be assured of the title to eminence 

 which the former has so generally obtained being 

 really well established ; to which end I should be 

 glad to learn on whose authority this question has 

 been decided in opposition to that of Sir G. Wilkin- 

 son, and shall be obliged by some further informa- 

 tion on this interesting subject. 



C. E. White. 



