60 Royal Society : — 



Flora of Edinburgh ; being a List of Plants found in the Vicinity 



of Edinburgh. By J. H. Balfour, Professor of Botany. 12mo. 



Edinburgh : A. & C. Black. 1863. 

 Flora of Marlborough : with Notices of the Birds and a Sketch of 



the Geological Features of the Neighbourhood. By the Rev. 



T. A. Preston, 12mo. London: Van Voorst. 1863. 



These two little books are published with a very similar object : 

 they propose to assist the student in his search after plants, — in one 

 case, the students of the University of Edinburgh, in the other the 

 boys at the great school called Marlborough College. It is curious 

 to remark that the schoolmaster aims at a higher standard when 

 writing for his boys than the Professor when providing a book for 

 his University students. Are we to deduce from this an idea of the 

 relative mental attainments possessed by the two classes? We should 

 be ashamed to make such a deduction. What, then, is the cause of 

 the Professor giving us simply a list of plants, without any of the 

 additional matter now expected from local floras, not even telling us 

 in which counties his localities are placed ; and the schoolmaster 

 following the example set by our best modern local floras in all the 

 respects admissible by the circumstances of his district ? We make 

 no attempt to answer the question. 



Dr. Balfour's radius of twenty miles round Edinburgh traverses a 

 rich country, offering much variety of soil and situation. He should 

 have given a sketch of its geology, surface, and meteorology ; and 

 might well have divided it into several districts, and attempted a 

 complete flora of each. 



Mr. Preston has obtained from a friend an interesting outline of 

 the geology of his area, has divided a circular space of six miles 

 radius from Marlborough into four districts, and endeavoured to 

 work out the botany of each. He has produced a book far more 

 likely to be valuable to his readers than that of Dr. Balfour to the 

 students of his class; for Mr. Preston's book is by much the more 

 likely of the two to direct attention to matter other than the simple 

 names of the plants. Doubtless, to the mere collector, each will 

 prove of use, and fulfil their objects ; and we hope that we may look 

 upon the Flora of Edinburgh as the forerunner of a more elaborate 

 and scientific work from the pen of its excellent and learned author. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



March 19, 1863. — Major-General Sabine, President, in the Chair. 



" On Peculiar Appearances exhibited by Blood-corpuscles under 

 the influence of Solutions of Magenta and Tannin." By William 

 Roberts, M.D., Physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary. 



The object of the following paper is to give an account of certain 

 observations which seem to indicate that the cell-wall of the verte- 



