854 Bibliographical Notices. 



regard to many plants, especially Bryophyllum, Cardamine pra- 

 tensis, Drosera, Malaa^is paludosa, &c. A fine example of this is 

 shown by a Chelidonium majus var. laciniatum reared by Bern- 

 hardi in the Botanical Garden at Erfurt, from whose leaves floral 

 bractlets arose, partly unifloral, partly multifloral, without any 

 preceding leaves*. Shoots may be allured by the gardener out 

 of most leaves which do not wither too soonf. Finally, the 

 little budlets in whose bosom the germ of the new plant is 

 formed and developed, and which we call seeds, are a kind of 

 shoots, which in most cases owe their origin to leaves (carpels), 

 out of w^hich they spring (on the margins, which unite to form 

 the placenta), or more rarely, out of their whole inner surface. 

 [To be continued.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Glaucus; or the Wonders of the Shore. By Charles Kingsley. 

 Cambridge : M'Millan. 185.5. 12mo. 



The relief of the hapless individuals who feel themselves compelled 

 to pass a certain number of weeks every summer out of town, without 

 knowing in the least what to do with their time when away from 

 their accustomed haunts, is the object which Mr. Kingsley has pro- 

 posed to himself in the publication of this little book, which in our 

 opinion is one of the most charming amongst the many admirable 

 popular works on Natural History that have appeared of late. It 

 may be defined, and we trust that the Reverend author will not be 

 offended at the expression, as a Sermon on the Advantages of the 

 Study of Natural History, but written in such a style and adorned 

 with such a variety of illustration, that we question whether the most 

 unconcerned reader can peruse it without deriving both pleasure and 

 profit from his labour. 



At the outset, as was to be expected, our author expatiates upon 

 the great superiority of the study of Natural History over all the 

 other sources to which mankind generally resort for their amuse- 

 ment, and here we think he has been betrayed by his zeal into a 

 slight indiscretion ; not that he has placed his favourite studies upon 

 too high a pedestal, but he has treated those from which he wishes 

 to wean his readers with too little consideration. In Mr. Kingsley' s 



Rumex Acetosella, Ajuga Genevensis, Jurinea PoUichii, Nasturtium syl- 

 vestre et pyrenaicum. According to Wydler, they often appear in Viola 

 sylvatica. 



* I may add to the examples I have given of shoot-formation taking 

 place out of the leaves, one which I observed in June 1853, in Levisticum 

 officinale. I found, in fact, in several species of this UmhelHfer, one or 

 more, frequently two, shoots in the points of division of the leaves, which 

 after producing a few weak leaves bore a small umbel. 



t Kirschleger (Flora, 1844, No. 2) notices a fine example of this in Glox- 

 inia speciom. 



