10 NOTICES OF SERIALS. 



THE ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. No. 85, January, No. 

 86, February ; No. 87, March, 1855. 8vo. With plates. London : Taylor 

 and Francis. Price 2s. 6d. each. 



No. 85, January : (Rev. W. Smith) Notes of an Excursion to the South of 

 France and the Auvergne, in search of Diatomaceae, with a plate ; (W. H. 

 Benson) Amended Characters of the singular Lymneadous genus, Camptoceras, 

 and a Description of a new Ancylus, inhabitants of north-western India; also^ 

 Characters of the genus Opisthoporus, an eastern form, of Cylostomacea, with 

 remarks on its Affinities, and notes on several Opercula ; (P. H. Gosse) On Arti- 

 ficial Sea- water. When noticing Mr. Warrington's analysis of sea- water in the 

 previous number of the "Annals," we observed, that sea-water made according to 

 Mr. Gosse's plan seemed to agree with the sea-weeds and anemones as well as their 

 native element ; and in the remarks now made by Mr. Gosse, we are glad to find 

 this view corroborated, and that in the most decisive manner, by the statements 

 here made. (J. Gwyn Jeffreys) Notes on Swiss Mollusca. Mr. Jeffreys em- 

 ployed a summer and autumn at Lausanne, on the Lake of Geneva, in collecting 

 and investigating the Swiss mollusca ; and a goodly list he presents for the assist- 

 ance of those who are interested in the subject of the geographical distribution of 

 species. He also records the discovery of a new Pupa viz., P. Halleriana and 

 gives us a list of those species that are Swiss, but not yet recorded as British ; and 

 British, but not hitherto indicated as Swiss. From this latter we miss Helix 

 nemoralis and Limneus stagnalis, both common British mollusca, but not recorded, 

 at least in Mr. Jeffreys's list, as frequenting Switzerland. (J. H. Balfour, M.D., 

 Professor of Botany, Edinburgh) Sketch of the Life of the late Professor Edward 

 Forbes. From this sketch, which was read before the Botanical Society of Edin- 

 burgh, on the 14th December, 1854, we select the following : Edward Forbes was 

 born in the Isle of Man, in the 12th of February, 1815. When not more than 

 twelve years old he had imbibed a taste for natural history. He visited London 

 at the age of sixteen, and was engaged there in studying the art of drawing, under 

 Sass. He came to Edinburgh, in 1831, and entered the medical class. Though 

 he attended nearly all the classes required for gradation, yet he did not take out 

 the M.D. degree. In 1833 he visited Norway, and made considerable collections, 

 both geological and botanical. He became a member of the British Association in 

 1834, and was one of the most regular attendants on its meetings. He was the 

 first who called the attention of the association to the subject of dredging, and 

 secured their co-operation and aid in this most important matter. He appears to 

 have visited the Alps in 1835 ; and about this time he, with other eminent natu- 

 ralists, founded the Botanical Society, which held its first meeting on the 9th of 

 February, 1836. In 1839, at the Birmingham meeting of the British Association, 

 he, and other naturalists, finding that they had not their proper place at the con- 

 vivial meetings, instituted a separate ordinary. The first Natural History Section 

 Dinner happened to take place in an inn of that town having the sign of the lied 

 Lion ; and, ever after, the Natural History Club thus commenced was designated 

 " the Red Lion Club." The Red Lions have had their annual social reunions at 

 every meeting of the association since that time. In 1841 he published his beau- 

 tiful monograph on the " British Star Fishes." In the following year we find him 

 engaged in the JEgean, and coasts of Asia Minor, where his life was placed in 



