Fuly 7, 1870] 
NATURE 
187 
arranged, and many fully worked out in two or more ways. 
With this short analysis of the contents, we heartily com- 
mend the work to teachers generally, assuming, of course, 
that they will regulate their use of it in proportion to the 
requirements of age and ability of their pupils. The work 
is neatly got up, and we have detected hardly any errata. 
On page 51, ex. 2, we have “ How many petals are there 
in 376 forget-me-nots?” Here there isan omission and a 
slight technical error. -In botanical language the “ forget- 
me-not” (AZyosotis) is monopetalous, the number of odes 
of the corolla being five. Rs ile 
Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club 
for 1869. 
No slight service has been rendered to the cause of 
natural science by the numerous naturalists’ field clubs 
scattered here and there through the country, not only in 
the exploration of the natural products of their respective 
districts during their summer excursions, but in infusing a 
love of such pursuits among dwellers in the country. 
When the transactions of the year are published in so 
attractive a form as the volume before us, an additional 
benefit is conferred. The Woolhope Club is one which 
has been for some years favourably known, chiefly through 
the labours of one or two genuine naturalists among its 
members, as having furnished some real contributions to 
science by its researches among the pleasant woodland 
county of Herefordshire. The volume consists mainly of 
lively accounts of the various excursions made by the 
club during the summer of 1869, with lists of the rarities, 
zoological and botanical, met with, and reports of the 
papers read by its members. Among the more important 
of the latter we may mention Dr. Bull’s history of “ The 
Ancient Forest of Deerfold ;” and papers on the occur- 
rence and identification of rare birds in Herefordshire and 
Radnorshire, by Mr. Armitage, Rev. Clement Ley, and 
Mr. James W. Lloyd, including the peregrine falcon 
(Falco peregrinus), the hobby (/. sudduteo), the little 
merlin (4. @salon), the grasshopper warbler (Sy/véa docu- 
stel/a), the fire-crested wren (Regulus ignicapillus), and 
the great and little bittern (Ardea stel/laris and minuta). 
Dr. Bull has given a celebrity to the Woolhope Club for 
its enthusiasm in favour of edible fungi ; there are several 
papers on the subject, to which is appended Mr. W. G. 
Smith’s Clavis Agaricinorum. Several very pretty illus- 
trations ornament the .book, among which may be 
mentioned photographs of some of the remarkable trees 
of Herefordshire, and a drawing of the famous Deerfold 
mistletoe-oak. 
Contributions to Botany, Iconographic and Descriptive. 
By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S. Vol. 11. (Williams and 
Norgate, 1869.) 
TuHIS volume will be welcomed as an addition to Mr. 
Miers’ contributions to systematic and structural botany, 
all of which possess the value of the labours of a careful 
and accurate observer, and one especially conversant prac- 
tically with South American botany. We find in this 
volume carefully worked papers on the Ca/yceracea, a 
- small order closely allied to Compositz, on the carpolo- 
gical structure of Bignondace@, on the history of the maté 
plant, and the different species of ilex used in the prepara- 
tion of Paraguay tea, a monograph of the Z77icuspidarice, 
an essay onthe genus Gowfza, one on the structure of 
fTeliotropiace@, and a paper on the South American forms 
of Ehretiacee. But the most important article is one on 
the genus £phedra, which Mr. Miers considers has been 
improperly placed among gymnosperms, maintaining that 
it has neither naked ovules nor naked seeds, and believing 
that it is more allied to Urticacee than to Cycadacee@ or 
Conzfer@, presenting a far higher order of structure than 
these latter orders, The third volume, devoted entirely to 
Menishermace@, is promised shortly. Ay We Bs 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expr ssed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
Life in the Deep Sea 
THE interest which attaches to every fact which bears upon the 
phenomena of life at great depths in the ocean, will, I hope, ex- 
cuse me for especially directing the attention of the readers of 
NATURE to the “‘ Beitrage zur Plastiden Theorie” (published in 
the fifth volume of the Yenarsche Zeitschrift), with a separate 
copy of which my friend Prof. Haeckel has just favoured me. 
The longest of the papers which constitute the ‘‘ Beitrige,” 
is devoted to a careful study of Bathydbius, and the associated 
Coccoliths and Coccospheres ; and it is a matter of great satis- 
faction to me that Prof. Haeckel has arrived at conclusions 
which, inall the main points, agree with my own respecting these 
remarkable organisms. 
In a second paper Prof. Haeckel describes a wonderful 
Radiolarian, JZyxobrachia, observed during his stay at the 
Canary Islands, the further study of which promises to throw 
a new light upon the nature of the Coccoliths and Coccospheres ; 
inasmuch as bodies of the same character were found accumu- 
lated, and apparently developed, in masses at the extremities 
of certain prolongations of the protoplasm of AZyxobrachia. As 
Myxobrachia attains a length of half an inch, and seems to be 
abundant in the harbour of Lanzerote, it is to be hoped that 
Prof. Haeckel, and other naturalists, will not long remain de- 
prived of the opportunity of submitting it-to re-examination. 
Another important discovery madé public in the “ Beitrage,” 
is the existence of starch in the well-known “yellow cells”’ of 
the Radiolaria. In connection with this fact, it is interesting to 
remark that all the Radiolaria are floating organisms, and, con- 
sequently, that they are fully exposed to the light of the sun, 
oy By Hoxtey 
Jermyn Street, June 23 
The ‘‘English Cyclopedia” 
Your issue of June 2 contains a long letter from ‘‘ Nemo,” to 
which a short reply seems desirable. Most of his statements are 
incorrect, and, as an illustration of the trustworthiness of his 
facts, or supposed facts, allusion may be made to his remark that 
all he can find in the Cyclopedia about Arwicole, Crocidure, 
Crossopi, Hypud@i, and Sorices is that Hyfudeus is sometimes 
spelt Hipudeus ; whereas all the species mentioned in the Close 
Time Report to which he refers are described or noticed in the 
Cyclopedia, The species of the sub-genera Crocidura and 
Crossopus are referred to under their generic heading Sorex in the 
article Sovecide, E. C. Some of the terms which he says are 
omitted properly belong to another division of the Cyclopzdia. 
Thus Acclimatisation is noticed in the Arts and Sciences division, 
and something additional will probably be given in the supple- 
ment to that division. Again, Deep Sea Dredging had scarcely 
become a subject of general interest when the Natural History 
Supplement was being written, while the character of the prin- 
cipal results, and the probability of great additions to the subject, 
rendered it advisable, as was thought, to postpone its consi- 
deration until the Arts and Sciences division was supplemented. 
Some of the results are, however, given under A/cyonaria and 
elsewhere in the Natural History Supplement. As regards the 
other subjects said to be omitted, most of them do occur, 
Darwinism is noticed under Species, E. C.S., and also under 
Paleontology, Crustacea, &e. Dimorphism in Animals will be 
found under Avznelida, Hydrozoa, Generations (Alternation of), 
Crustacea, &c., in E. C. S. LZophyton is noticed ; and Lozoon 
is repeatedly mentioned, while its systematic position is 
described under Joraminifera. The article LZxtophyfa in 
E. C. is devoted to the fungi connected with skin diseases, 
while those which are associated with ague and other diseases 
would be most appropriately noticed in connection with those 
diseases, which do not belong to the Natural History division. A 
whole column is given to ya/onema under Alcyonaria, E. C.S., 
in which the contradictory views of Drs. Bowerbank, Gray, 
Wright, and others, are distinctly referred to. Something is said 
about Hybridity under Primula. Ornithoscelida is not in; the 
term was first proposed in a paper read Noy. 24, 1869, which 
paper was not published in the printed form until after the Sup- 
