220 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
nation pointed out by our author are as variable as those derived from 
the length of the leaf-stalk or of the fruit-stalk are admitted to be. 
We have before us, as we write, twigs gathered from the same tree,—a 
pollard truly,—presenting great diversities in the form and disposition 
of the buds, as well as in the arrangement of the scales. Too muc 
reliance, then, must not be placed on these points, though we may be 
— thankful for any additional means of arriving at a solution of what has 
often proved a vexata questio. As to the general appearance of the two 
forms, the author shows how the shape of the tree and its general 
habit depend on the arrangement of the twigs, the abortion of some 
buds and the lengthening of others, and thus accounts for the rounded 
form of Q. pedunculata, and its tortuous, jagged branches, as contrasted 
with the pyramidal shape of Q. sessiliflora and its more slender 
branches. 
In: sonelusion, it is pointed out that there is an analogy between 
the form of the leaf and that of the tree, and between the arrangement 
of the nerves of the leaf and the disposition of the branches, so that, 
as has frequently been remarked in other cases, the tree is but as an 
enlarged copy of the leaf. Our readers will recall Dr. M‘Cosh’s ob- 
servations on this curious subject, but may not be familiar with Mr. 
Ruskin’s explanation of the varying forms of trees,* as illustrated by 
that of the Oak among others, and which is well worthy the attention 
of morphologists. 
Notes extraites d’un Catalogue inédit des Plantes Phanérogames du 
Département du Cher. Par A. Dèsèglise. Angers. 1863. Pp. 21. 
The department of the Cher is comprised within the inland but yet 
lowland portion of the great basin of the Loire, and takes its name 
from a branch of that river, which rises on the north-western edge of 
the Auvergne hills. It is included within the district embraced by 
Boreau’s ‘Flore du Centre.’ The flora of the department has been 
carefully studied by M. Déséglise, who has contributed to M. Boreau's 
work the result of his researches, and who is known also as the author 
of an elaborate monograph of the French Roses. He has prepared a 
Flora of the department, which he has hesitated to publish in a com- 
plete form, and upon this the present pamphlet, which contains an ac- 
* «Modern Painters,’ vol. v. p. 28, ete. 
