734 



and calculate had become fixed and certain, — the reasoning, calculat- 

 ing brain was moulded by the creative finger, ' and man became a 

 living soul.' Such seems to be the true reading of the wondrous in- 

 scription chiselled deep in the rocks. It furnishes us with no clue by 

 which to unravel the unapproachable mysteries of creation ; these 

 mysteries belong to the wondrous Creator, and to Him only. We 

 attempt to theorize upon them, and to reduce them to law, and all 

 nature rises up against us in our presumptuous rebellion. A stray 

 splinter of cone-bearing wood, — a fish's skull or tooth, — the vertebra 

 of a reptile, — the humerus of a bird, — the jaw of a quadruped, — all, 

 any of these things, weak and insignificant as they may seem, become 

 in such a quarrel too strong for us and our theory : the puny frag- 

 ment, in the grasp of truth, forms as irresistible a weapon as the dry 

 bone did in that of Sampson of old ; and our slaughtered sophisms 

 lie piled up, ' heaps upon heaps • before it." — p. 288. 



We ought to conclude with this eloquent passage, but, as " we are 

 nothing if not critical," we must just hint to our author that Crabbe's 

 " salt lavender, that lacks perfume," is not Statice Armeria with its 

 flowers changed to blue by the influence of sea air (p. 289), but the 

 naturally blue-flowered Statice Limonium and its allies : and that we 

 doubt whether Eriocaulon septangulare (p. 229) is really a native of 

 America, where other species of that genus are common. These, how- 

 ever, are minor defects in a book of great excellence, a book which every 

 one should read, and one that does equal honour to the author's industry 

 and ability, and to his zeal in the cause of religion and true science. 



L. 



Remarks on Glyceria Jluitans and G. plicata. 

 By Wm. Henry Purchas, Esq. 



When looking in this neighbourhood for Glyceria plicata, I was 

 much puzzled by the apparent inconstancy of some of the characters 

 given for that plant and G. fluitans : a more careful scrutiny has con- 

 vinced me that their limits are not yet correctly laid down in books, 

 and also, that in addition to forms exhibiting trifling deviations from 

 the type of G. fluitans, there is one which appears almost intermedi- 

 ate between that and G. plicata, and which, if only a variety of the 

 latter, is well deserving of notice. I believe that other botanists have 

 had suspicions of the kind, while Mr. Townsend has gone so far as to 

 propose a third species, — G. bybrida, — but which does not seem to 



