56 Bibliographical Notices. 



distinction without a difference. If we under!?tand Mr. Thwaites's 

 ideas correctly, he regards, in the case of simple conjugation for in- 

 stance, one cell as the homologue of the pollen-grain, the other of 

 the germinal vesicle of a flowering plant. The modifications of the 

 envelopes of these essential elements are of no consequence as to the 

 general theory. At the same t'me we agree with Dr. Lindley that 

 the balance of evidence lies against the doctrine of sexuality in the 

 flowerless plants. The unconfirmed statements of Schleiden on the 

 fertilization in the Marsileacese are not alluded to ; the analogy of 

 the larger spores to ovules has certainly been satisfactorily shown, 

 by the subsequent observations of Mettenius and Niigeli. 



We were rather surprised to find (at p. 136. vol. ii.) a repetition 

 of the old statement, that the old bark and the wood, of Dicotyledons, 

 are separated in spring by the exudation of a slimy substance called 

 cambium ; we should have thought this an oversight had it not 

 also occurred in the first volume ; any one may convince himself that 

 there is no solution of continuity by submitting a section to the 

 microscope, but this section requires care and a very sharp knife. 



There are other minute points which might be noticed ; but look- 

 ing at the work as a whole, and the fullness and especial clearness 

 with which the multifarious questions are expounded, this would be 

 an invidious task ; and we feel that the work must be received as a 

 most welcome contribution, not only by advanced students, but par- 

 ticularly by all now on the threshold of the science, who have indeed 

 great facilities compared with those who date their first acquaintance 

 with botany from but a few years back. 



Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia during the years 

 1844-5 & 6, &c., by Captain Charles Sturt, F.L.S. : with a 

 Botanical Appendix by Robert Brown, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.L.S., 

 and Ornithological Notices by John Gould, F.R.S. 



This is not the place to give an account of the geographical results 

 of this last expedition of " the father of geographical research ;" if it 

 were, we should be tempted to linger among its pages. 



In this book the usually dreary and almost hopelessly depressing 

 inland tracts of Australia are described by one, who has made them 

 his home for many a weary month, in a way which reminds us of the 

 narratives of the Arctic discoverers, Parry, Franklin, Richardson, 

 Back and Buchan, or the antarctic voyage described by Ross and 

 Hooker and M''Cormick. In their pages, such incidents as a white 

 fox or little Mus leucopus visiting the icebound ships, a little marmot 

 coming into a tent and snuggling, from the winter's blast, beside 

 the fire, regardless of the sleeping terrier — the purple saxifrage 

 (S. oppositifolin) creeping as it were out of the snow, the Ledum pa- 

 lustre, Cranberry, exquisite Dryas octopetala, Oxyria, and not a few 

 Ranunculi — " icy " and " hairy," springing as if by magic out of the 

 ground immediately when the snow has melted on some little 

 favoured spot — tell in a way that can only be understood and en- 

 joyed by the naturalist or the poet. 



