252 



NE WS [march 



observation. The garden will be a small strip of land, 200 ft. x 80 ft., at Cast- 

 lands Road, Perry Hill, London, S.E., and will be under the charge of Mr. P. 

 Cochrane. According to the plan, which we have seen, the land will be laid 

 out with soils suitable to special classes of plants, as clay, sand, chalk, etc., and 

 there will be marshy tracts to suit on the one hand fresh-water plants, and on 

 the other those that live near the sea. There will also be fresh and salt water 

 pools. Small zoological and geological collections are proposed later. The idea 

 is being pushed forward by Mr. W. H. Griffin, the Hon. Sec. of theCatford Natural 

 History Society, Mr. A. A. Abbott of Perry Hill, and others. The main object 

 of the promoters is to secure for their district an educational exhibit, which will 

 be, should it prove successful, of considerable value, and in any case cannot fail 

 to promote an interest in botany. Further particulars can be obtained of Mr. 

 Cochrane, at 47 Perry Hill, S.E. 



Dr. Melchior Treub, director of the botanical garden at Buitenzorg, recently 

 celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his doctorate. This has formed the 

 excuse for the issue of a supplement to the Annales of that garden, which, in 

 167 pages with 9 plates, contains 23 papers written by some of the botanists 

 and zoologists who have worked at the garden. 



Cambridge University has bought the Carne collection of Cornish minerals 

 for £475. 



There has recently been erected at Great Crosby, near Liverpool, an erratic 

 of gypsum, which was found in the boulder clay of that place. The erratic weighs 

 about fourteen tons, and measures 9 ft. 6 in. x 7 ft. 4 in. x 5. ft. 7 in. The occur- 

 rence of gypsum is rare in these deposits, and Mr. Mellard Reade, who describes 

 the specimen in a separately printed tract, is of the opinion that it probably 

 came from Whitehaven, in Cumberland. The erratic was presented to the 

 town by Mr. Edward Peters, and the District Council of Great Crosby have 

 shown considerable public spirit in permanently preserving this interesting 

 geological object lesson. The boulder has been erected in the precise position 

 in which it was found. 



Dr. E. J. Nolan has, says Science, presented the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Science with five volumes in memorial of the late Dr. Joseph Leidy. 

 The first contains biographical notices and similar material ; the second 

 contains botanical drawings and notes by Dr. Leidy, and the remaining three 

 his zoological drawings and notes. All are carefully indexed. 



The latest of the Museum Handbooks (Publication 24) of the Manchester 

 Museum, Owens College, is somewhat of an " omnibus " nature. It is devoted 

 to "The Marine Mollusca of Madras and the immediate neighbourhood. Notes 

 on a collection of marine shells from Lively Island, Falklands ; and other 

 papers. By J. C. Melville, M.A., F.L.S., and R. Standen." The " other 

 papers " are really three short notes on individual species, and the whole, illus- 

 trating specimens in the museum, is reprinted, with the two plates, from the 

 Journal of Conchology, vol. ix., "in the hope," which we cordially echo, "that 

 they may prove useful to those who study the collections of Mollusca in the 

 Manchester Museum." 



This is not the first time that the museum authorities have drawn on the same 

 Society for materials to form one of their excellent series of guides, and the principle 

 is one which other kindred institutions would do well to copy, since publication 

 by reprint must be an economical mode of publication. The original pagina- 

 tion has been scrupulously adhered to, as should always be the case in a 

 reprint, but it spoils the look for a Handbook, and we would suggest to the 

 museum authorities that appearances would be greatly improved if in future 

 productions of this nature the original pagination were transferred to the inner 

 end of each headline and an independent pagination inserted in its place. The 

 cost would not be more than the finances of the College could well bear. 



