GLEANINGS. 141 



Bland's Lessons on Elementary Botany, reviewed in our last 

 number, has, we learn, been revised, and new editions of Parts 1 and 2 

 are in the press, and will be ready in a few days. 



A Cat Walking Seventy Miles. — The Sheffield Daily Telegraph says a 

 family recently removed from Dawley, Shropshire, to Nottingham. They 

 took with them a cat which they had had for years. A few days after 

 arrival at Nottingham she disappeared. The other day the cat walked 

 into the old house at Dawley, to the great surprise of the neighbours. 

 She was very footsore and lame, but othei-wise all right. The distance 

 travelled by the cat is over seventy miles. It is strange how the cat 

 traversed the whole distance without being lost or worried. 



Birmingham Philosophical Society. — The first part of Vol. I. of the 

 proceedings of this Society, (Session 1876-7,) has just been issued. Its 

 contents are as under: — "New Researches in Contractihty and Elas- 

 ticity," by Professor R. Norris, M.D., F.R.S.E.; "Vortex Motion," by J. 

 Hopkinson, D. Sc, M.A. ; "The Kinetic Theory of Gases," by the Rev. 

 H. W. Watson, M.A. ; " The Study of Science as an Instrument of Higher 

 Education," by G. Hookham, M.A. ; " The Place of Archffiology in 

 Science," by James Kenward, F.S.A. ; and " The Evolution of the Sense 

 of Hearing," by Lawson Tait, F.R.C.S. 



The Herefordshire Pomona, about to be pubhshed by the 

 Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, is being got on with vigorously. The 

 letterpress of Part I. is quite ready, and its publication will take place as 

 soon as the coloui-ed plates can be finished. Prepared as it is by such 

 competent hands, the Herefordshire Pomona will no doubt be a work of 

 considerable merit. The introductory matter of the first part consists 

 of an elaborate treatise on "The Early History of the Apple and Pear," 

 mythically, m)d;hologically, and historically considered. This is followed 

 by a sketch of " The Life of Thomas Andi-ew Knight and his Work in the 

 Orchard." The common behef in the hmited duration of varieties of 

 apples is here stoutly called in question ; and the results of Mr. Knight's 

 experiments in the production of new sorts of apples and .pears by 

 hybridisation, is also fully entered into. In short, the introduction is the 

 result of much work and much thought ; and, what is of still more 

 importance, contains matter in practical physiology that can scarcely fail 

 to make others work and think too. Then will begin the main object 

 of the Pomona — to give beautifully coloured plates of all the best 

 varieties of apples and pears, &c. Communications fx'om intending 

 subscribers should be addressed to Mr. J. R. S;yTiionds, Hereford. 



Mr. Bolton's Microscopist's and Naturalist's Studio. — Mr. E. 

 Ray Lankester, F.R.S., has contributed a note in the current number of 

 the " Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science," on the agency recently 

 estabhshed by Mr. Bolton, at No. 17, Ann Street, Birmingham, for the 

 supply of microscopic organisms to students and class teachers, from 

 which we have much pleasure in copying the following extract: — "If 

 serious students of our pond-fauna and flora will avail themselves of 

 Mr. Bolton's services, and not only jjurchase from him examples of the 

 specimens he has on hand, but will also send to him supplies of such 

 rarities as they may find, for the purpose of distribution among his corres- 

 pondents and customers, we shall have started among us an agency which 

 will be of immense service not only to the individual student but also 

 (and perhaps chiefly) to the teacher who requires to be able to obtain 

 supplies of given microscopic organisms for his practical classes, and to 

 feel with absolute certainty that the specimens needed will be forth- 

 coming on the appointed day. Mr. Bolton can, at present, be depended 

 on for certain forms ; after a little time he will be able no doubt to enlarge 

 his hst." 



