1863.] REVIEWS. 571 



afforded to the more intelligent members, who educate themselves 

 while they impart information to the younger and less informed 

 members, who are thus roused and prepared to take an interest 

 and an influential part in the great business of education. 



The contents of this little but comprehensive volume present 

 the readers with the objects of local museums, their furniture, 

 their eff'ects, results, etc. etc. 



The treatise shows how the labour is to be apportioned, how 

 the funds are to be raised, how the museum is to be started, 

 what specimens are to be preserved, how they are to be mounted 

 or prepared for future inspection, etc. etc. 



On all these points the fullest information is embodied in the 

 Treasurer's address, which is here presented to the readers of the 

 ' Phytologist,' in the earnest hope that the energetic inhabitants 

 of many of our smaller towns and villages will imitate this good 

 example which the Wimbledon naturalists have carried out so 

 successfully. 



"Address. 



" The Wimbledon Museum Committee wish it to be understood in the 

 very outset of their undertaking, that their Museum is to be purely local ; 

 it is to consist solely of such objects of interest, characteristic of Wimble- 

 don and its neighbourhood, as may be found within a radius of five miles 

 from the parish church. . . . The Wimbledon Museum should contain 

 specimens illustrating the nature of the soil, the tribes of living beings 

 (plants and animals), and the antiquities, if any, of the neighbourhood ; 

 and in its formation it is hoped that all classes of the inhabitants will take 

 a part. ... If called upon to particularize objects whose collection, pre- 

 servation, and careful examination, would be a source of never-failing in- 

 terest to the inhabitants of Wimbledon — young and old, — the Museum 

 Committee, speaking in very general terms, may point to the following 

 list :— 



" Mineral Kingdom. — Different kinds of sand, and of pebbles forming the 

 gravel, and of fossils surrounding the pebbles, or within them. Varieties 

 of peat and clay, to illustrate the nature of the surface earth. 



" Vegetable Kingdom. — Confervae, Lichens, Fungi, Mosses, Ferns. A 

 collection of flowering plants, to show the leaf, flower, seed, and stem, 

 arranged according to the natural system. Seeds of difi"ereut plants, seed 

 vessels, and their skeletons. Specimens of woods, also in section (trans- 

 verse and longitudinal), and their bark. Several series, showing the stages 

 of growth of a bud, from the period of its formation to that of its leaves, 

 flower, seed, and bud again; series of leaves and their skeletons." 



