LINXEAI? SOCIETY OF LONDO>\ IxiU 



specific relations, the variability, affinities, and geographical distri- 

 bution of Mantchurian MoUusca are treated. The publications of 

 the first meeting of the Association of Russian Naturalists include 

 a review of the Crustacea of the Black Sea by Y. Czemiavski, an 

 account of the Annnlata Chaetopoda of the Bay of Sebastopol by x^. 

 Bobretzki, and a paper on the zoology of the Lake of Onega and its 

 neighbourhood by K. Kesslar, including a review of the Fishes, 

 Crustacea, and Annulata of the Lake of Onega, and of the Mollusca 

 collected in and about the Lakes Onega and Ladoga, and a list of 

 the Butterflies of the Government of Olonetz. The historical and 

 scientific memoirs pubKshed by the University of Kazan, of which 

 several volumes have recently reached us, include a systematic 

 enumeration and description of the birds of Orenburg (329 species), 

 with detailed notes of their habits &c., by the late Prof. E. A. 

 Eversmann, edited after his death by M. N. Bogdanoff, forming an 

 8vo volume of 600 pages in the Russian language. 



There is not in Russia at the present moment sufficient encou- 

 ragement on the part of the public to induce the publication of 

 independent biological works beyond a few popular handbooks ; but 

 the Imperial Academy of Petersburg has, on the other hand, been 

 exceedingly liberaf in the assistance it affords, and active in its issue 

 of Transactions with excellent illustrations, as well as of its Bulletin 

 or Proceedings. The volumes recently received include J. E. Brandt's 

 * Symbolse Sirenologicae ' and Researches on the genus Hyrax (re- 

 viewed in 'Zoological Record,' v. p. 3, and vi. p. 5), A. Strauch's 

 Synopsis of Yiperidse, with full details of their geographical distribu- 

 tion, E. Metschnikoff"s Studies on the development of Echinoderms 

 and Nemertines, and ^N". Miklucho-Maclay's Memoir on Sponges of 

 the N. Pacific and Arctic Oceans, with remarks on their extreme 

 variability inducing the multiplication of false species. In Botany, 

 Bunge's Monograph of the Old-^Vorld species of Astragalus is the 

 result of many years' labour and careful investigation. The 8 sub- 

 genera and 104 sections into which this extensive genus is divided 

 appear to be very satisfactory ; but the species (971) are probably 

 very much too numerous, and we miss that comparison with American 

 forms which, considering the very numerous cases of identity or 

 close affinity, is essential for the due appreciation of the X. Asiatic 

 species. Bunge has also published a monograph of the Heliotropia 

 of the Mediterraneo-Oriental region in the Bulletin of the Society of 

 Naturalists of Moscow, which continues its annual volumes. The 

 parts recently received continue several of the botanical enume- 

 rations ali-eady noticed, together with various smaller entomological 

 papers. 



