THK MAMMALS OF AMOOKLAND. 13 



have omitted them, and this is not the place to discuss their autonomy. 

 Some observations upon these matters will be found in the works re- 

 ferred to below.* 



We do not find in Mr. Berkeley's work any account of the genus 

 Pilobolus, of which two species, P. crystallinus and P. roridus, have 

 been found in this country. The omission is, we presume, accidental, 

 for there has never been any question as to the Piloboli being true 

 Fungi. 



III. — The Mammals of Amookland. — Reisen und Forschungen im 

 Amur-lande in der Jahren 1854-6, im Auftrage der Kaiserl. Akade- 

 mie der Wissenschaften zu St. Petersburg, ausgefiihrt und in Yer- 

 bindung mit mehreren Gelehrten ausgegeben von Dr. Leopold von 

 Schrenck. Band I., Erste Lieferung. St. Petersburg, 1858. 



Had the recent mutiny in India resulted in the expulsion of the British 

 from the peninsula, little, it has been said, except an unfinished railway 

 or two, would have remained to bear witness that they had ever been 

 there. Whatever change the present system of administration may 

 have made in other respects, we have failed to learn that greater encou- 

 ragement is likely to be afforded to the investigators of the natural pro- 

 ducts of India by its new government. Our nearest Continental neigh- 

 bours have not been so long in possession of the wild country which 

 forms the southern shores of the Mediterranean, yet the " Exploration 

 Scientifique d'Algerie" is, we believe, a fait accompli, and affords, at 

 any rate, a good basis for future workers in the same field. Our trans- 

 atlantic cousins have still more recently anuexed California and Texas; 

 but a goodly row of Reports upon the zoology, botany, mineralogy, and 

 meteorology of these countries have already appeared under the auspices 

 of their enlightened government ; and were these countries to revert to 

 barbarism to-morrow, would remain to prove that the civilized races 

 who temporarily held them had not neglected the opportunity of adding 

 to the general stock of knowledge of mankind. 



Now, it is impossible to value too highly the labour's of Hardwicke, 

 Hodgson, Blyth, Hooker, Thompson, Jerdon, Tennent, Cantor, and a 

 host of others, too numerous to mention, who have worked long and 

 laboriously in investigating the different branches of Indian zoology and 

 botany ; but we think we have a right to complain that no encou- 

 ragement has been given on the part of our, Indian rulers to any general 

 work, such as might embrace the results thus arrived at, and show 

 what has really been effected towards the working out of the Fauna and 

 Flora of a country which we hold " in trust for the benefit of mankind." 



" Quart, Jour, of Mic. Science," vol. iii., p. 263 ; vol. iv., p. 192; vol. v., p. 126. 

 " Annales des Sciences Nat.," 3rd Ser., vol. xx., pp. 130-171. 

 lb., 4th Ser., vol. v., p. 108, and vol. viii., p. 35. 

 " Philosophical Transactions," 1857, p. 543, et seq. 



