1858.] REVIEWS. 443 



are mostly tropical species, the British species and a few 

 south of Europe examples, such as Woodivardia radicans and 

 Asplenium palmatum excepted. These may be also called tropical 

 or subtropical, for their centre of distribution is very far south of 

 the British Isles, their extreme limit in Europe. These fine spe- 

 cimens have not only been collected with much judgment, the rhi- 

 zomes and the fructification being quite perfect, but they are ex- 

 ceedingly M^ell dried, and where the paper is not stinted, and when 

 properly mounted, they will form almost magnificent objects. 



The Natural History Review and Quarterly Journal of Science. 

 London : Williams and Norgate. 



This number contains first an article well merited, viz. a 

 memoir of the late Dr. Ball, one of the joint editors of the 

 ' Review.^ The account of his visit to Arran, and of its antiqui- 

 ties and natural productions, is worth perusal. The botanical 

 information is scanty, and the zoological not very plentiful. 

 Matthiola, Astragalus ? sp., and Zostera marina, are all the ex- 

 amples recorded of Arran^s botany. The Reviews are devoted to 

 some of the publications that have recently appeared on Arctic 

 expeditions ; in these there are a few zoological but no botanical 

 notices. Among the Reviews there is one entitled ' Gosse's Om- 

 phalos.' It is to be assumed that all our readers know what 

 this term means. It has been recorded that there is a sect of 

 oriental sages or meditative pundits who spend whole days and 

 weeks in looking at that particular part of their physical system 

 which some people would scruple to name. These waggish re- 

 viewers of the Emerald Isle appear to believe that Mr. Gosse 

 has some crotchet or other about Creation, — or Creation's being 

 a violent irruption into the circle of nature. All this is about 

 as intelligible to us as the doctrines and practices of the cele- 

 brated gymnosophists of antiquity. 



From the proceedings of the Dublin Natural History Society 

 we make the following extract of additional botanical facts made 

 known through the instrumentality of this Society: — Erica 

 mliaris (as a native of Ireland?), Potentilla floribunda (what is 

 this ? is it in Babington's last edition ?), Arabis Crantziana (will 



