366 Bibliographical Notices. 



a native of Europe, and can scarcely be said even to be natural- 

 ized in the British Islands. 



Besides the places I have mentioned where it has been seen 

 growing, Mr. Babington states that it was found by Mr. Pol- 

 whele on the cliff above Falmouth Harbour ; and I learn that 

 there is a specimen in Sir William J. Hooker's herbarium at 

 Kew, sent from Helston, a few miles from Falmouth, by Mr. 

 C. A. Johns. 



Glasgow, Oct. 13, 1860. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia : being Observations prin- 

 cipally on the Animal and Vegetable Productions of New South 

 Wales, New Zealand, and some of the Austral Islands. By 

 George Bennett, M.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S. &c. 8vo, London, 

 Van Voorst, 1860. 



Little more than seventy years have elapsed since the founda- 

 tion of the British colony of New South Wales. At the period of its 

 establishment, and for many years afterwards, scarcely anything was 

 known in the mother country of the vast island on the shores of which 

 this almost infinitesimally small settlement had been made. Even its 

 coast-line was only made oat imperfectly by numerous voyages of 

 discovery; and the condition of its interior has been ascertained 

 within the last few years. But such are the capabilities of this New 

 World, such its adaptation to the production of all the necessaries 

 and most of the luxuries of a highly cultivated state of society, that 

 within this short period — indeed, within the memory of living men — 

 it has advanced from a very unpromising origin to be the most 

 important of our colonial possessions, affording a home and an easy 

 subsistence to so many thousands of our countrymen, that it is hard 

 to find in the old country any one who has not some connexion 

 amongst its inhabitants. 



Parallel with this material prosperity, our knowledge of the natural 

 productions of Australia has also advanced rapidly. Scientific ex- 

 peditions have been sent to explore the coasts and the recesses of 

 those parts of the continent not inhabited by white settlers ; private 

 collectors have zealously done their part of the work of discovery, 

 and some of the first botanists and zoologists of Europe have devoted 

 themselves to the task of describing the materials thus collected. 

 Upon the Birds and Mammals of Australia we have in this country 

 two splendid works from the pen of Mr. Gould, who himself undertook 

 a voyage to the Antipodes for the sake of observing his feathered 

 favourites in their native haunts. The sea- weeds of the Australian 

 coasts have also found an able expositor in Prof. Harvey; and of 

 many other groups, both of plants and animals, we possess more or 

 less accurate details. 



But the majority of the works in which these particulars are to be 



