PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Natural History in London. 



The Zoological Society/. — In a letter to Lord Lansdowne, the president 

 of this Society, published in the TimeSy Jan. 22., the writer entreats the 

 president to take warning by the fate of the Horticultural Society ; " the 

 same influence which guided and fostered the expense at the gardens at 

 Chiswick, mainly directing the expenditure in the gardens in the Regent's 

 Park, and, what is of still more consequence, of the farm at Richmond.'* 

 The advice, we trust, wUl not be lost. We chiefly notice this letter for 

 the following remarks : — 



" I should regret to see the Zoological prematurely sink, as the other society has done : it will, 

 if well conducted, and if the suggestions of the scientific members be properly listened to, afford 

 great assistance in the advancement of natural history ; and all must agree that it is the means 

 of much rational amusement to the inhabitants of London. I cannot help adding a further benefit 

 which has arisen from this society. The conduct in England of what is termed the public, in 

 public gardens, &c., has hitherto been proverbially bad, — cutting, tearing, and destroying every 

 thing they could lay hands on j and the contrary behaviour of the French has always been taunt- 

 ingly referred to. Now, I am one of those who considered that much of this conduct of our 

 countrymen arose from the mode in which they were treated. The dealing with a man as if he 

 were a thief is the surest way to make him one : the very extended admission allowed to the 

 public has, for the first time, created a sort of interest which never existed before in what may 

 be considered in some measure as public property ; and I know I am correct in saying that, not- 

 withstanding the immense numbers admitted to the gardens in the Regent's Park, there has been 

 no one instance of misconduct : so that, independently of the advancement of science which will 

 result from the Society, I think its menageries may be made the means of working considerable 

 good in the character of the people, and at the same time afford them a rational and cheap amuse- 

 ment." — . Philo-B. ( Titnes, Jan. 22. 1830.) 



We have repeatedly adverted to this subject in both our Magazines. The observation of the 

 productions of nature is the first step in the progress of rational education ; and the study of na» 

 tural history, which is nothing more than the improved or cultivated observation of nature, is 

 not only best calculated for calling forth and strengthening the reasoning powers, and for re- 

 sisting the natural tendency of man in a state of ignorance to superstition and fanaticism, but 

 also for softening and ameliorating the heart and the manners. If Kensington Gardens were 

 sprinkled with groups of the finest flowers, and ornamented with copies of the noblest statues of 

 antiquity, there is no one who entered these gardens who would not learn to respect them ; and in 

 a short time acquire a taste for them, and delight in looking at them. This is the case at Paris, 

 Rouen {Gard. Mag., vol, v. p. 498.), strikingly so at Frankfort {Ibid., p. 209.), and more or less so 

 at most of the great cities on the Continent. As the London populace is at least as well instructed 

 as that of Paris, and certainly better fed, there is nothing to hinder us from concluding that the 

 same causes would produce the same effects here ; unless, indeed, it be the climate, and something 

 in the character of our variety of the species. But man, in every climate and of every variety, is 

 an animal that may be trained to any thing; and it will be the fault of government if the British 

 people of every rank become not in all respects what they ought to be. — Cond. 



Art. II. Natural History in the English Counties, 



Surrey. 



L/L/t7MMartagon. — I have the pleasure to add to the British Flora illium 

 Mdrtagoiiy which I have seen in great abundance in a wood at Woodman- 

 stone, near Epsom, Surrey. I was first made acquainted with it in the 

 summer of 1826, by an inhabitant of the place, who informs me he observed 

 it alaout 45 years ago. Should any botanist desire some of these presumed 

 indigenous specimens, or the Messrs. Sowerby for the English Botany, I 

 shall be most happy to supply them next season. — Alpha. Oct. 14. 1829. 



