56 Bibliographical Notices. 
distinction without a difference. If we understand Mr. Thwaites’s 
ideas correctly, he regards, in the case of simple conjugation for in- 
stance, one cell as the homologue of the pollen-grain, the other of 
the germinal vesicle of a flowering plant. ‘The modifications of the 
envelopes of these essential elements are of no consequence as to the 
general theory. At the same t'me we agree with Dr. Lindley that 
the balance of evidence lies against the doctrine of sexuality in the 
flowerless plants. The unconfirmed statements of Schleiden on the 
fertilization in the Marsileacez are not alluded to; the analogy of 
the larger spores to ovules has certainly been satisfactorily shown, 
by the subsequent observations of Mettenius and Nageli. | 
We were rather surprised to find (at p. 136. vol. ii.) a repetition 
of the old statement, that the old bark and the wood, of Dicotyledons, 
are separated in spring by the exudation of a slimy substance called 
cambium ; we should have thought this an oversight had it not 
also occurred in the first volume ; any one may convince himself that 
there is no solution of continuity by submitting a section to the 
microscope, but this section requires care and a very sharp knife. 
There are other minute points which might be noticed; but look- 
ing at the work as a whole, and the fullness and especial clearness 
with which the multifarious questions are expounded, this would be 
an invidious task ; and we feel that the work must be received as a 
most welcome contribution, not only by advanced students, but par- 
ticularly by all now on the threshold of the science, who have indeed 
great facilities compared with those who date their first acquaintance 
with botany from but a few years back. 
Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia during the years 
1844-5 & 6, &c., by Captain Cuarues Srurt, F.L.S.: with a 
Botanical Appendix by Rospert Brown, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.L.S., 
and Ornithological Notices by Joun Goutp, F.R.S. 
‘This is not the place to give an account of the geographical results 
of this last expedition of *‘ the father of geographical research ;” if it 
were, we should be tempted to linger among its pages. 
In this book the usually dreary and almost hopelessly depressing 
inland tracts of Australia are described by one, who has made them 
his home for many a weary month, in a way which reminds us of the 
narratives of the Arctic discoverers, Parry, Franklin, Richardson, 
Back and Buchan, or the antarctic voyage described by Ross and 
Hooker and M°Cormick. In their pages, such incidents as a white 
fox or little Mus leucopus visiting the icebound ships, a little marmot 
coming into a tent and snuggling, from the winter’s biast, beside 
the fire, regardless of the sleeping terrier—the purple saxifrage 
(S. oppositifolia) creeping as it were out of the snow, the Ledum pa- 
lustre, Cranberry, exquisite Dryas octopetala, Oxyria, and not a few 
Ranunculi—" icy” and “hairy,” springing as if by magic out of the 
ground immediately when the snow has melted on some little 
favoured spot—e// in a way that can only be understood and en- 
joyed by the naturalist or the poet. 3 
