280 Bibliographical Notices. 



that is human, lowered though it be as the outcast leper of benighted 

 Crete — and a hearty, honest, common-sense view of men and man- 

 ners, give a good tone and genuine feeling to all his observations. 

 In fact, the naturalist, geologist, geographer, antiquary, and general 

 reader cannot fail to be interested and instructed by this work. Its 

 illustrations are first-rate : two excellent geological and topographical 

 maps ; a dozen good chromo-lithographs of scenery, with some other 

 plates ; numerous small lithographs on india-paper inserted in the 

 text, besides several woodcuts, are all well executed, and help the 

 reader. A delicately tinted lithograph of Cestum Veneris and Beroe 

 illustrates a long and careful account of these beautiful creatures. A 

 chapter is devoted to the sponge-divers and their surroundings ; and 

 a picturesque group of their fishing-boats is shown in a coloured plate. 



Appendices on Cretan and modern Greek (by Viscount StrafFord); 

 on Deep-sea Soundings ; on Currents in the Mediterranean ; on the 

 Salinity of the Black Sea and Mediterranean ; on the Geology of 

 Crete, and its relations with Malta and Africa; on the Birds (by 

 Col. Drummond-Hay) and the Land-Shells of Crete ; and on the 

 Greek inscriptions found in Crete (by Dr. Churchill Babington), 

 carry out more fully some of the researches and favourite topics 

 of our author. 



One of the characteristics of Capt. Spratt is most pleasantly shown 

 in the honest and genial acknowledgment of the labours of his col- 

 leagues in the Nautical Survey, of the aid of other friends in his 

 scientific and literary work, and of the strong and lasting influence 

 that he believes the genius and philosophy of his lamented friend 

 Edward Forbes have had in rousing, shaping, and supporting that 

 activity of research which is so handsomely represented by these 

 volumes — which is so well known by many circles of his countrymen 

 and foreigners, and always so modestly referred to by himself. 



Handbook of British Water-weeds, orAlgce. By Dr. John Edward 

 Gray, F.R.S., late President of the Botanical Society of London. 

 The Diatomacece, by W. Carruthers, F.L.S. &c. London : 

 Hardwicke, 1865. 



This little work contains an arrangement of all the Algae or Water- 

 weeds hitherto recorded as found in Great Britain and Ireland, re- 

 ferred to the most recent genera, and fills up a desideratum that has 

 for several years been felt by the botanical student. 



The black- and red-seeded Algae, which, with very few exceptions, 

 are all marine, are arranged in the families, genera, and subgenera 

 used by Professor Jacob George Agardh in his * Species, Genera, et 

 Ordines Algarum,' lately published in Sweden, with the alterations 

 suggested in the system proposed by Professor Harvey, in his ac- 

 count of the American Algae, published by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. The species are all accompanied by a short diagnosis and a 

 reference to the best figure which has been given of them from spe- 

 cimens in a living state, Harvey's ' Phycologica Britaimica' being the 

 work almost always referred to. 



