Bibliographical Notices. 511 



given many proofs of the value and constancy of this character 

 ('Annals/ Jan. and March ; and Journ. Micr. Soc. Jan. 1864) ; 

 but as they were chiefly drawn from Kentish plants, it seemed 

 desirable to extend the inquiry to species grown in different 

 localities. Accordingly Mr. W. H. Baxter, taking an intelligent 

 interest in the subject, supplied me with fragments, from an old 

 herbarium, calculated to afford a further test as to the raphidian 

 character of British Galiacese. Some of these were marked 

 " probably poisoned," and others '' probably not poisoned ;" 

 and their names here follow on the excellent authority of that 

 botanist : — Capri foliages : Lonicera Periclymenum, L. Capri- 

 folium, L. Xylosteum, Sambucus niger, S. Ebulus, and Viburnum 

 Lantana. Galiace^ : Galium saccharatum, G. spurium, G. pa- 

 risiense, G. montanum, G. sylvestre, G. tricorne, G. erectum, 

 G. saxatile, G. uliginosum, and Asperula cynanchica. Valeria- 

 NACE^ : Valeriana dioica, Centranthus niber, and Fedia dentata. 

 These three orders are here placed as they stand together in the 

 natural classification. After careful examinations, raphides were 

 found in every one of the specimens of Galiacese, but could not 

 be detected in any one of the two other orders. And this is the 

 more remarkable, not only from the state of the dried fragments, 

 but from the fact that the raphides of Galiacese are regularly 

 smaller and less abundant than in many other plants (Onagracese, 

 for example), as was well seen in comparing the small and scanty 

 raphides of G. saxatile and G. uliginosum with the larger and 

 more numerous raphides of other dried portions of several spe- 

 cies of Epilobium. But such is the persistency of raphides, that 

 I have regularly found them in dead stems, leaves, or roots of 

 Onagracese and Mesembryanthacese which had been fully exposed 

 to the destructive effects of the whole winter and spring ; so that 

 even these decayed fragments may thus be surely distinguished 

 from others of allied orders. 

 Edenbridge, May 9, 1864. 



[To be continued.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Birds of India, ^c. By T. C. Jerdon, Surgeon-Major, Ma- 

 dras Army, Author of ' Illustrations of Indian Ornithology.' 

 Vol. I. and Vol. II. Part 1. Calcutta: 1862, 1863. (London: 

 Smith and Elder.) 



"We have to apologize to Dr. Jerdon for having so long delayed to 

 notice the valuable work he has published. But, in truth, it is not 

 one to be hurriedly reviewed ; for such a proceeding on our part 

 would justly lay us open to the charge of insufficiently recognizing 



