1. 



PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



eacli year, with numerous plates, is limited to zoological Pliysio- 

 logy and Anatomy, to tlie express exclusion of systematic and 

 descriptive papers. It commenced in 1851, and is now in its 

 fifteenth annual volume for 1865. 



Pringsheim's Jahrbiiclier derwissenchaftliclienBotanik, Berlin, 

 afterwards Leipzig, large octavo, with plates, begun in 1857, in 

 quarterly parts, of which four were to form an annual volume, are 

 still however only in their fourth volume. This work also is 

 specially destined for Physiology and Anatomy. Systematic and 

 descriptive Botany are only admitted for microscopic plants or 

 algee, and others of the lower orders of cryptogams, with the sole 

 exception of Caspary's paper on Hydrilla. 



In both the above publications we regret to see currency given 

 to a mischievous misuse of the word scientific, now prevalent 

 among many Grermans — mischievous in its tendency to cast a 

 slur upon system and methodical description as necessarily 

 unscientific, although they had only become so at the close of last 

 century, by a misinterpretation of Liunean principles now happily 

 better understood. If the study of the jjhenomena of life may 

 lead to higher results than that of outward form and structure, 

 the one cannot be carried on without the other, and if micro- 

 scopical structure is more difficult to observe than that which is 

 visible to the naked eye, the one is not more important than the 

 other. Physiological differences in living beings aremore |or less cor- 

 relative to difierences in form and structure ; and to have clear ideas 

 in relation to them the subjects of observation must be accurately 

 identified and judiciously classed ; and, on the other hand, no de-, 

 scription or system is good unless physiology and structure are taken 

 into consideration as well as outward form. Speculations there- 

 fore in biology, without an accurate knowledge of individuals and 

 systematic affinities, or microscopic observations unchecked by 

 what can be ascertaiaed without the aid of the instrument, are 

 surely as imscientific as the rude systems of mere collectors 

 where outward visible form alone is considered. 



Skofitz's ffisterreichisches botanisches Wochenblatt, at Yienna, 

 formed seven annual volumes, octavo, from 1851 to 1857, and has 

 been continued, from 1858, under the title of ffisterrreichische 

 botanische Zeitschrift, now in its eighth volume. It contains 

 botanical bibliography and intelligence, papers on Horticulture 

 and local Botany, and occasionally short monographs or other 

 articles on general Botany, descriptions of new plants, &c. 



Cabanis and Baldamas's Journal f iir Ornithologie, published at 



