548 EUROPEAN RANGE OF BRITISH PLANTS. {JuUBy 



surface-markings resemble the carving and cutting of a " cunning 

 workman/' so strongly are they carved and ornamented ; in some 

 species of Heath they are trilobate and triangular. 



Among the flowering tribes^ the forms and figures of their 

 pollen-grains are so many, diversified, and beautiful, that to at- 

 tempt an enumeration would only be trespassing upon the read- 

 er's time and patience. I would just say, take your microscope, 

 sit down, and see for yourself. To those who have not that 

 wonder-revealing instrument, endeavour to procure one; until 

 you do so, you can never adequately conceive of the beauty and 

 symmetry of structure, both in the animal and vegetable king- 

 doms. A compound microscope may now be bought for about 

 three guineas, which will answer the botanist and naturalist very 

 well for most of the purposes and investigations he requires to 

 pursue. Such an instrument will magnify, with the different 

 object-glasses, from thirty to about one hundred and fifty diame- 

 ters, assuming the ordinary focal distance of the human eye to 

 be ten inches. With such an instrument, the corpuscles of the 

 blood and globules of milk may be seen, and the longitudinal 

 strise on the scales of Lepisma saccharina clearly defined. 



The best and cheapest work on the microscope is by Jabez 

 Hogg, published by Routledge, and costs six shillings; but a 

 small book may be had for a shilling, entitled ' Common Objects 

 of the Microscope,' by J. G. Wood, and published also by Rout- 

 ledge. Well may the scientific man exclaim, with the royal 

 Psalmist, " O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom 

 hast thou made them all." * John Sim. 



JBridge End, Perth, June, 1862. 



Remarks on the European Range of the Indigenous British 



Plants. 



The two lists of plants common to the Azorean Isles and to 

 the empire of Japan, have long been in our hands, and they are 

 now oflered to our readers, with the intention of inviting their 

 remarks on this important subject. 



From Greece, a specimen of the common Primrose, Primula 

 vulgaris, with which we were lately supplied by the kindness of 

 one of our correspondents, who spent the spring and early sum- 



