222 Bibliographical Notices. 



tity of these trees with the Adansonia of Senegal ; hut it will not be 

 the less interesting, should this be the cast', to ascertain what vege- 

 table giant in Western Africa represents the colossus of the East. 



Some sets of M. Kotschy's Taurus and Syrian plants, consisting 

 of from 230 to 260 species, most of them named, may still be had at 

 the rate of about thirty shillings the hundred, besides the carriage 

 from Vienna. The collections from Nubia are on their way to Vi- 

 enna, and the price will only be fixed after their arrival there. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



A History of British Reptiles. By Thomas Bell, Professor of Zoology 

 in King's College, London. Illustrated by a Wood Cut of each 

 Species, with some of the varieties, and numerous Vignettes, No. I. 

 8vo. Van Voorst, London, 1838. 



This is the first number of another portion of M. Van Voorst's 

 series of works illustrating the British Fauna, and in its general 

 character we think it one of the very best. The figures are well 

 and scientifically drawn, and are beautifully cut. The descriptive 

 part is also excellent, and enters at once into the difficult parts of 

 the synonymy, and the distinctions between the species of our rep- 

 tiles which are allied to each other, or to those of the continent. We 

 have only one objection ; the w^ork is a history of British Reptiles, 

 but the range of the species out of England is scarcely touched on. 

 This information, it is true, is difficult to be procured from actual ob- 

 servation, but there are surely persons in both the sister divisions of 

 our islands who would have willingly communicated what they 

 knew. 



The number commences with the two turtles (Chelonia imbricata 

 and Sphargis coriacea) which possess so slender a claim to a place in 

 our Fauna. We w r ould consider the instances where both species 

 have been found within the range as entirely accidental. And it 

 seems questionable even that either of them were wafted to our 

 shores, from having mistaken their course, or from an extraordinary 

 war of elements. The Lacertidce follow next, and in the description 

 of the first, the application of Lacerta agilis, Linn., to the proper 

 animal seems clearly made out, and the fact of our possessing two 

 species, members of distinct genera, established without a doubt. 

 We are not aware that the L. agilis, Linn, and Bell, L. Stirpium of 

 Jenyns, has yet been discovered in Scotland ; since the publication 

 of the ' Manual' by the last-named naturalist we have been look- 



