EDITORIAT. NOTES. 99 



line Alarginella des lies Falkland on du Cap Horn ? N'y aurait-il pas una simple 

 errenr de /i?//?'^ dans 1' indication de latitude et longitude donnee comme prove- 

 nance ? La latitude ne serait-elle pas 50'' 25' 5" Sud au lieu de 50° 25' 5" Nord ? 

 Le premier point tombe entre les lies Falkland et le Cap Horn. Je pense que 

 iMarginel/a hahni Ae Rochehrune et Mahille," Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn," 

 1S82-3, t.vi. (Zoologie), Mollusques, p. 51, pi. iii., fig. 4, est la meme espece que 

 celle de Marrat, qui, plus ancienne (1879), " '^ priorite." 



It may not be superfluous to put on record the most important conchological sale 

 of recent years — that of the Carl BLilovv collection, which was dispersed at Stevens' 

 Rooms, on February 27th. The collection, as most are aware, had been in Messrs, 

 Sowerby & Fulton's hands for a considerable time on commission, and many of the 

 rarities had thus been privately disposed of. The entire collection contained 

 approximately 20,000 species, and included that of Flerr Strubell — rich in land and 

 freshwater shells. 



We have lately had an opportunity of reading a collection of verse, entitled: 

 " Verse — or Worse," from the pen of one of our members, Mr. F. H. Sikes, and 

 should like to say at once that we failed to discover justification for the second 

 ]iart of the title ! All the pieces (we gather from the preface) have already appeared 

 in print in the Globe, IVeslminster Gazette, Temple Bar, Chums, Boys' Own Paper, 

 or other papers. We can heartily recommend this small volume to anyone who 

 enjoys short, witty verse, ingenious rhymings, clever bathos and a whimsical choice 

 of subjects. We may perhaps be allowed to quote a verse from a parody on " The 

 Assyrian Came Down " (p. 99), as being well within the scope of our /om-nal : — 

 " Like the head of a snail on a fine summer morn, 



That pestilent 'scorcher' exalted his horn; 



Like the head of a snail when encountering salt. 



That 'scorcher' hy evening found time for a halt." 



The book is enriched with three pretty Icelandic sketches by the author, excellently 

 reproduced by Messrs. Taylor Bros., of Leeds, who are the publishers. 



Two very handy little volumes on the " Mollusques de la France et des 

 Regions Voisines" have just l;een published in the "Encyclopedic Scientifique" 

 series by O. Doin et Fils, 8, Place de I'Odeon, Paris. Vol. I. dealing with the 

 Amphineura and Opisthobranchiata is by A. Vayssiere, the well-known professor 

 at the Marseilles Faculty of Science, who has made a special study of the Opistho- 

 branchs for years. So much lias recently been written on this order, that the 

 volume will be a most useful up-to-date compendium and guide for students from 

 every point of view. \q\. II. is from the pen of Louis Germain, of the Paris 

 Natural History Museum, and treats of the land and freshwater gastropods of 

 France. It will lie of the utmost use to palrearclic students, and we welcome it 

 as an avowed attempt to biing about a wholesale reduction in the species created 

 by the splitting propensities of Bourguignat, Locard, and others, though by no 

 means the last word on that subject. M. Germain's remarks on the Bourguignat 

 school are well worth reading, and he shows how their often mi.sguided zeal has 

 at any rate led to the increased study of polymorphism and of the effects of 

 environment in producing variation. There are altogether 67 plates in the two 

 volumes, but the figures are as a rule poor and very coarsely produced, and hardly 

 up to the high standard of the letterpress. The price for the two volumes is ten francs, 



