The weather op pebkuaey. 105 



old north-country proverb, " Febmary fill dyke," completely falsified. 

 Frosty nights from 6th to 13th. Vegetation active. One consequence of 

 the mild winter is seen in the abundance of keep for stock. Turnips are 

 in excess of the requirements of most farmers. Good hay £3 per ton. 

 Many spring flowers have appeared with the winter aconite and snow- 

 drop, which usually follow those harbingers of spring, violets, prim- 

 roses, yellow ci-ocus, double daisies. Erica cariiea, Anemone apennina, 

 A. hlanda, Myosotis dissitijlora, Rliododendron daiiricum amongst the number. 

 Belmont Villas. — Very mild month. Temp, below freezing point on five 

 nights only. Mean 41-7°. S.W. winds on 22 days. Castle Ashby. — 

 Rainfall about average of last five years, (l-59in.) " February fill dyke " 

 has a bad character, which, however, appears to be the reverse of the 

 truth. Results of last five years at this station show it to be the driest 

 month in the year except May, (l-51in. average.) Burlet-on-the-Hill. — 

 Snow and rain on 13th. Altarnun Vicarage. — A remarkably dry 

 month ; the first ten days rather frosty. Orleton. — First twelve days 

 di-y and cold, with severe frosts, but no snow ; remainder of month warm 

 but cloudy, httle sunshine, rainfaU nearly an inch below average. 

 Brampton, near Chesterfieli). — 8th, hazel catkins; 13th, snow on 

 ground ; 18th, ash leaf ; 19th, lesser celandine and dog's mercury in 

 flower ; Rosa arvensis and sweet violet on 25th ; Rosa canina on 28th. 



I 



Noteg of Lessone on Elementary Botany. By W. Bland, Master of the 

 Endowed School, Driifield. (Bemrose's School Manuals.) London : 

 Bemrose and Sous. Parts I. and II., 6d. each. 



After reading the numerous text-books of Elementary Botany which 

 the last few years have produced, and which repeat the old, old truths in 

 a very similar and monotonous way, it is a relief to find one which strikes 

 out a new hue as this does. Were it for nothing else, it would be 

 remarkable for the entire absence of the stock woodcuts, which have 

 been repeated in one book after another till they have grown wearisome. 

 Every one of the drawings, mostly by the author himself, with which 

 this little book is adorned, is new. This point, however, concerns more 

 the teacher than the taught ; it is of gi-eater consequence that they are 

 exceedingly numerous, and bear the mark of having been copied direct 

 from nature, with the exception of a few, which are all the more 

 conspicuous amidst the general excellence. Some of them, as those 

 illustrating the terms moiuecious and diwcioiis, will be more instructive to 

 young readers than a lengthy paragraph of description. A few of the 

 illustrations are misleading, noticeably that of the cone (p. 23,) the salver- 

 shaped corolla (p. 29,) the silique (p. 41,) and the lichen (p. 85.) That of 

 the Volvox on p. 86 is strikingly inaccurate. The microscope with which 

 Mr. Bland saw this must have resembled Sam. Weller's "patent gas 

 microscope of hextra power." Imagine a distinctly oval body, adorned 

 with eight large tubercles, each furnished with two stout cilia, whose 

 length is equal to half the diameter of the Volvox ! 



The value of the book is marred by the inaccuracy of some of the 

 derivations given. An Antheridium. is so caUed not because it is " like a 

 flower," but because in function it " resembles an anther," if it and 

 similar words should not rather be considered diminutives ; and an 

 Archegonium is not the " chief female," but the " beginning of the female 

 organ." We may also notice that the useful fibres of flax and hemp are 

 derived from the inner layer of the bark (p. 12,) as the author himself 



N 



