The Scottish Naturalist. 237 



In the last number (January and April, 1872) of the Journal of the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society, Mr. Buchan continues his valuable papers on the rainfall 

 of Scotland. He treats this time of the average monthly rainfall. The paper 

 is illustrated by numerous tables and diagrams, and should be in the hands of 

 everyone interested in the climatology of Scotland. The rest of the Journal is 

 occupied by the usual reports. 



In the " Journal of Botany" (which is now edited by Dr. Trimen), for June 

 among several articles of general interest is a note upon Carex Davalliana, by 

 Professor Babington, and a suggestion (which we hope our friends in Aberdeen- 

 shire will not lose sight of) by the editor that Scottish botanists who have the 

 opportunity should look after this plant. 



Persons interested in transatlantic microscopy will perhaps be glad to hear of 

 the " Lens,'" a quarterly journal published in Chicago, and edited by Mr. S. A. 

 Briggs. the second number of which has recently appeared. 



We had marked several passages for transcription in our interesting contem, 

 poraries the "American Naturalist" 1 and the " Canadian Entomologist," but 

 the pressure on our space has prevented them appearing in this number. 



From the same cause we cannot do more at present than merely allude to 

 several recent publications interesting to Scottish naturalists. A Catalogue of 

 the Hemiptera Heteroptera of Northumberland and Durham by T.J. Bold (Nat. 

 Hist. Trans, of Northumberland and Durham, vol. iv. 1872) contains a list of 

 151 species. This list should be useful to collectors in the south of Scotland. 

 Mr. J. Hardy, the active secretary of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, contri- 

 butes to the transactions of his club a second paper on the Entomology of the 

 Cheviots, recording 500 species. Dr. Angus Smith, F. R.S., in the first part of 

 a "Descriptive List of Antiquities near Loch Etive'' (Proceedings Soc. Antiq. 

 Scotland, vol. ix ), makes some suggestions as to growth of peat. Dr. Smith 

 thinks that " we may have from 10 to 30 inches of open fibrous peat in a cen- 

 tury, according to the nature of the water supplying the moss." 



We must not, however, omit to notice the "Tineinaof North America,' being 

 the collected writings on that subject of the lamented An erican micro-lepidop- 

 terist, Clemens, edited by our great authority on Tineina, Mr. H. T. Stainton, 

 F. R.S. This work, though treating only of transatlantic species, will no doubt 

 be of use to workers in this country. 



Microscopical Puzzles.— The correct and exact interpretation of pheno- 

 nomena — the determination of the true character of the structures— observed 

 under the microscope is a matter frequently of much greater difficulty than may 

 be supposed by the uniniriated. We have thought it worth while to illustrate 

 this statement by means of a plate (Plate vi.) exhibiting certain curious looking 

 bodies, regarding whose nature the most opposite opinions would probably be 

 given by zoologists, botanists, mineralogists, histologists, and pathologists. If 

 told that the bodies in question occurred in pond- water, the zoologist would 

 probnbly declare them to be Infusoria ; and the reader may find bodies precisely 

 similar in appearance figured in the "Quarterly Journal of Microscopical 

 Science" (for January, 1872, p. 74) as freshwater Kadiolarics. It happens, 

 however, that the bodies figured in our own plate were contained in the ejecta 

 from the stomach ahd intestines of hospital patients, and are simply some of the 

 forms under which the fatty matters of our food appear while in process of 

 digestion. Their true nature is proved by the action of heat and ether, under 

 which they rapidly disappear. An argument this in favour of the use of chemi- 

 cal reagents in microscopical research. 



