Biblioffraphical Notices. 125 



kept clean, and actually treated with manure, albeit not of the bes 



quality ; in a few instances they were surrounded with stone walls, 

 as were the court yards of all the houses, but more commonly the 

 inroads of cattle were considered sufficiently prevented by strewing 

 thorny branches here and there. With the exception of a sombre 

 looking oak near Bhoomlungtung, and some weeping willows, the 

 arboreous vegetation consists entirely of firs. The shrubby vegeta- 

 tion is northern and so is the herbaceous, but the season for this had 

 not yet arrived. It was here that I first met with tlie plant called 

 after Mr. James Prinsep ; the compliment is not, in Bootan at least, 

 enhanced by any utility possessed by the shrub, which is otherwise 

 a thorny, dangerous looking species. Here too we first saw English 

 looking magpies, larks, and red-legged crows, 

 [To be continued.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Observations on the Blood Corpuscles, or Red Particles, of the Mam- 

 miferous Animals. By George Gulliver, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Assistant 

 Surgeon to the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards. — Memoirs in 

 the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine for Jan. Feb. 

 and March 1840. 



As we fully concur in the justice of the author's remark, that a 

 complete history of the blood- corpuscles would form a very accept- 

 able addition to anatomical and zoological science, we proceed to 

 give a short abstract of his observations, referring such of our readers 

 as may be desirous of more complete information on the subject to 

 his original memoirs. 



To persons who are but imperfectly acquainted with the blood 

 corpuscles, it might appear that these bodies are mere microscopic 

 curiosities, rather to be classed with some of the apocryphal " wonders 

 of the microscope" than regarded as objects of sober philosophic 

 research. However, some of the most distinguished philosophers of 

 the present day have expressed their conviction of the importance of 

 the red particles of the blood, and we conceive that this view derives 

 additional force from the fact that these curious bodies have now 

 been observed and found to possess regular and determinate forms 

 in no less than 136 diiFerent species of the class mammalia alone, 

 for such is the number in which Mr. Gulliver has already measured 

 and examined the blood corpuscles. They had only been described 

 in a few of the mammalia previously to the publication of his re- 

 searches ; but as he promises to continue his observations, and Pro- 

 fessor Wagner and M. Mandl, besides some other eminent physio- 



