NOTES ON BEAVERS. 167 



As pets in confinement, beavers are most affectionate and enter- 

 taining. Did time permit I could give yon numberless anecdotes of 

 their sagacity ; but the length my paper has already reached pre- 

 cludes any such extension. I trust that in what I have told you there 

 is sufficient to convince you that if we, lords and tyrants of creation 

 as we are, vacated the earth, the lower organisms of which the subject 

 of our paper to-night is a good example, would find their lives far 

 more agreeable, and a wider scope for the exercise of their intelligence. 



How far it rests with man to render the lives of animals more 



endurable I leave with you, and in conclusion add — 



" The heart Is hard in nature * * * * 

 ******* that is not pleased 

 With sight of animals eujoj'ing life, 

 Nor feels their happiness augment his own." 



Cffmspairtritte, tit. 



Saxifraga granulata. — Whilst entomologising in Repton Shrubs on 

 the 20th of last May, I canae across several plants of the Common 

 Meadow Saxifrage ( Sa.rifra<iii ijranulata) with double flowers. Have 

 any of your readers noticed a similar variety? — -T. Gibes, Bretby, 

 Burton-on-Trent. 



Meteorology. — We are, unfortunately, unable to present in this 

 issue our usual monthly reports on the weather. Mr. Clement 

 L. Wragge, to whom we are indebted for the reports which have 

 appeared in our pages for some time past, has been so incessantly 

 occupied in connection with his arduous meteorological work at Ben 

 Nevis, that he has been unable to prepare the repoil on the weather 

 of May in time for press. In the August number the reports will be 

 resumed, and a synopsis for April and May (the omitted mouths) will 

 also be given. 



OEciniuM. — If Mr. W. B. Grove's reference is correct, as it appears 

 to be, his correction of an old error is a valuable one. The word 

 .^cidium has always been a stumbling-block to beginners. The Rev. 

 M. J. Berkeley, in the "British Flora," and in his " Outlines," gives 

 Persoon as the founder of the genus, and Mr. Berkeley is followed by 

 Dr. M. C. Cooke, the Rev. John Stevenson in " Mycologia Scotica," 

 and by other authors. Mr. Berkeley gives the date of Mr. John Hill's 

 "History of Plants" as 1751. not 1773 like Mr. Grove; these figures 

 clearly antedate the writings of Persoon, which range from 17t)6 to 1828. 

 Mr. Berkeley il^es not give the derivation of .^cidium from aiKi^eiu, 

 "to affect injuriously," but from aiKiov, " a wheel."— W. G. S. 



Scports of ^ocictici 



BIKMINGHAM NATUR.\L HISTORY .\ND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.— 

 General Meeting, May 30th.— .Mr. R. M. Lloyd e.xhibited Coprinus micaceiis, 

 from a feru case in Birmingham. Mr. W. B. Grove e.xhibited Puccini 

 lychnidearum, from HoU Fleet, and Kurotium herb i rum. Mr. W. J. Harrison 

 exhibited slides, diagrams, models, etc., illustrating the best means of leachiug 

 Human Physiologj', and lucidly explained the advantages of the same. Geheral 



