EDITORIAL ARTICLE. 195 



lume. The anxiety of the Council to see their own names, or the name 

 of the Society, in print, has overreached their discretion, or they certainly 

 would have avoided a public record of their proceedings, so long as the 

 reading of articles from foreign journals, in lieu of original papers, occu- 

 pied the business of their monthly meetings. Belonging to the Society in 

 question, we feel at liberty thus to express our sentiments, because we 

 think the volume, taken as a whole, is not creditable to the Society, and 

 calculated rather to keep it in the rear, instead of contributing to place 

 it on a level with other bodies of a kindred nature. The plant allied to 

 Nympheea, and transmitted to this country from Guana by Schomburgh, 

 is figured and described under the name Victoria Regina, Schomburgh, 

 though in the ' Magazine of Zoology and Botany,' vol ii. page 440, it is 

 published as Victoria Regina, Gray. The Society, it appears, has adopt- 

 ed this plant as its emblem, the Queen having, in accordance with the 

 wish of its discoverer, granted permission for the use of her name to de- 

 signate the genus. Should Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria 

 have the curiosity to look at the description of this Royal plant, what 

 must be her astonishment, if the elements of Botany and the rudiments of 

 Latin have formed a part of Her Majesty's education, to find that under 

 the sanction of the Botanical Society of London, or at any rate that of 

 the Council, this said Royal plant, Victoria Regina, is characterised as 

 having "foliis orbiculatis, supra reticulato areolatis utrinque glabro; nervis 

 venisque subtus prominentis aculeatis" 



Messrs. Doubleday and Foster have been welcomed on their return 

 from America, with a dinner by their entomological friends, principally 

 intended as a public acknowledgment for the time and expense devoted 

 by these two gentleman to the advancement of science, and the liberal 

 manner in which they intend to dispose of the rich collection formed dur- 

 ing their travels. 1 On this occasion the uniform cordiality and kindness 

 they had experienced among American naturalists, was spoken of in the 

 warmest terms of grateful recollection. 



It will be seen by a notice on the second page of the wrapper, that 

 with the May number of this Magazine a supplementary part, containing 

 plates will be issued. The introduction of Memoirs illustrated by plates 

 constitutes a new feature in the publication of this journal, and one to 

 which we respectfully invite the attention and support of our subscribers. 

 We have long considered the limiting the illustrations to wood-cuts a 



1 It is understood that the collection will be distributed among the pub- 

 lic cabinets of the metropolis. 



