378 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Oct. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Calluna Vulgaris. — Professor Lawson, of Dalhousie Col- 

 lege, Halifax, has sent to one of the editors a specimen of this 

 plant, the common heather of Scotland, from St. Ann's Bay, Cape 

 Breton. This confirms an old report, referred to in vol. vii of 

 this journal, p. 343. of its occurrence in that island; and affords 

 another certainly ascertained American locality, in addition to those 

 previously known in Massachusetts and Newfoundland. It should 

 be satisfactory to the Scotsman in British America to know that 

 there is at least one spot in his adopted country where he can plant 

 his foot on his native heather. The apparent rarity of the plant 

 in America is however no less curious than its extension to this 

 country ; and it remains as a question for future botanists to settle 

 whether it is now being introduced to the new world or gradually 

 dying out from it. 



The Geological Magazine. — The Geologist, of London, has 

 been merged in a new periodical, to be edited by Prof. T. R. Jones 

 and Henry Woodward. Its prospectus says : 



The rapid progress of geology in all its branches, and especi- 

 ally the wide-spread interest imparted to this science by the 

 recent careful investigation of some of the more modern strata, 

 have largely increased the number of those who study geology, 

 either professionally or as amateurs. The frequent discoveries, 

 also, which result from the exertions of practical geologists, both 

 at home and abroad, appear to indicate the necessity of a monthly 

 periodical, not only for the publication of original papers on geol- 

 ogy and kindred subjects, as well as of translations of important 

 foreign memoirs, but also as the means of communication between 

 geologists and palasontologists in England and other countries. 



The valuable Journal of the Geological Society fulfils some of 

 these requirements ; but being published only quarterl}^, and 

 necessarily restricted almost entirely to the proceedings of that 

 Society, it cannot serve all the purposes proposed by the conduc- 

 tors of The Geological Magazine. 



In Germany the Neues Jalirhuch has fulfilled the require- 

 ments of the geological public for the last thirty years with un- 

 varying success ; and the editor and publishers of the Monthly 

 Geologist have during six years endeavored to meet them in 

 England. The latter work is now merged in The Geological 

 Magazine, 



