1863.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 541 



great subject," kindly sent for notice by the promoters of tlie Wimbledon 

 Naturalists' Club, will be welcomed by all who are stimulated to study 

 and admire the works of the Almighty, and who are zealous in aiding 

 any effort — however humble — to edify or amuse, or rather to elevate 

 their fellow-men. To the amiable and zealous Treasurer of this most 

 admirably organized and most successful institution, we, or rather our 

 readers, are indebted for this treat. A detailed notice of the work ap- 

 pears, or will appear, in another part of this periodical. 



Mr. Dyer, from whom we received these valuable and practical Hints, 

 has had the kindness to send Anemone apenn'ma from the ancient Wim- 

 bledon station. He is hereby requested to receive our hearty thanks, 

 both for the book and for the specimen. We wish we could say that the 

 question about the wildness of this pretty plant was sufficiently answered. 



It is hoped that room will be found for Mr. Ingle's list in next 

 number. 



Our notice of the ancient Eoman Oats grown on an English farm was 

 copied or extracted from a local newspaper sent to us by a very obliging 

 correspondent who lives at Alnwick. We did not believe that these Ko- 

 man oats had been lying perdu or dormant, or hybernating, for about 

 seventeen or eighteen centuries, and then sprang up when the site of the 

 old camp was cultivated. We will not answer for our correspondent's 

 belief in this modern miracle of nature ; but we may in excuse state that 

 we are not held res])onsible either for the facts or the opinions of our corre- 

 spondents. Several articles have appeared in our journal about the trans- 

 mutation of species, and there may have been other alleged fiicts printed 

 in our pages in which we had not the slightest confidence. There are 

 still some believers in Mummy TFheat, or that Wheat buried in the Egyp- 

 tian tombs when the ancient Hebrews were building the Pyramids, is now 

 cultivated in Europe. The ingenious author of ' Proverbial Philosophy,' 

 who was one of the originators of this belief, doubtless counts it a point 

 of honour not to change his faith. We are obliged to any correspondent 

 who will take the trouble of exposing these absurdities. We ourselves 

 would not begrudge the labour, but we shrink from the odium. 



Notice to Botanists. 



In the current year will be published (?) what the learned author, Fran- 

 cois Crepin, names ' Eevue de la Elore Belgique,' in large 8vo, on fine 

 paper, and to consist of about 450 pages. 



To this notice the following prospectus is appended : — " Since the year 

 1836, when appeared the third volume of ' Compendium Florae Belgicse,' 

 by Dr. Lejeune, the oidy descriptive account we have of the plants of 

 our native country, we have had no general work until 1860, when the 

 author of the proposed Eevue published his ' Manual of the Belgian 

 Flora,' a work well known to the readers of the ' Phytologist,' and highly 

 esteemed by all who are able to appreciate its merits. 



" This work being purely elementary, does not give sufficiently ample 

 details about the individual subjects of our flora. 



" A quarter of a century has now passed since the appearance of the 

 ' Compendium,' a work, indeed, of great merit, but now very incomplete, 



