728 



Robert Brown, Esq., and Dr. Neill, were presented to the Society from 

 Mrs. Graham. 



Mr. James Davies presented excellent dried specimens of 20 species 

 of Agarics, collected by himself in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 



The following donations to the Library and Museum were an- 

 nounced as having been received since last meeting, viz. : Delessert's 

 Icones Selectae, vol. 5, from the author j Uber die Tanaceten, by 

 Carl H. Schultz, from the author; Tenth Annual Report of the 

 Warwickshire Nat. Hist. Society, from W. G. Perry, Esq. : a collec- 

 tion of North American plants from Dr. Gavin Watson, of Philadel- 

 phia; European plants from Dr. Molkenboer, of Leyden, Ph. Wirtgen, 

 of Coblentz, and M. J. Zohr, of Trier; also of British plants from 

 various contributors. The thanks of the Society were voted to the 

 respective donors. — TV. TV. E. 



Notice of ' Tlie Potato Plants its Uses and Properties : together 

 with the Cause of the present Malady. TJie extension of that 

 disease to other Plants, the question of Famine arising there- 

 from, and the best means of averting that Calamity.'' By 

 Alfred Smee, F.R.S., Surgeon to the Bank of England. 

 Longman : London, 1846. 



We have rarely read a book with such unmingled satisfaction as 

 that published under the title which we have given above. We can- 

 not check the smile that returns to our physiognomy as often as we 

 peruse any of its profound aphorisms. Those of our contemporaries 

 who have noticed this brochure, appear to have entirely misunder- 

 stood its object, which we take to be that of burlesquing the solemn, 

 vapid nonsense wuth which the press has lately teemed on the sub- 

 ject of the potato. The entire work is written with the most inimi- 

 table skill, even when you have discovered the author's gist, you 

 cannot avoid being led away by the solemn vraisemblance of his 

 style. The 'Surgeon to the Bank of England' thus announces, with 

 infinite naivete, his qualification for the self-imposed task. " It fre- 

 quently happens that I have to traverse London in two or even more 

 directions in a single day, which circumstance has given me abun- 

 dant opportunities of making my observations in different localities." 

 — p. 11. There is an exquisite keenness in this, under which not 

 only the Commissioner but the Essayist must writhe in agony ; 



