1867.] Botany and Vegetable Physiology. 525 



Professor Masters, of Kishnaghur College, Bengal, describes a 

 shower of meteors seen at 2 a.m. on December 12. They shot 

 divergingly and with great rapidity from a point situate in about 

 136° of right ascension and 29° or 30° of north declination. 



Mr. Stone has estimated the longitude of the Sydney Obser- 

 vatory from observations of the moon and moon-calculating stars 

 made in the years 1859 and 1860. His result gives for the 

 difference of time between Sydney and Greenwich, 10b. 4m. 

 47-328. 



4. BOTANY, VEGETABLE MOKPHOLOGY, AND 

 PHYSIOLOGY. 



England. — A Handy Book for Collectors of Cryptogams. — The 

 Rev. TV. Spicer has translated, and Mr. Hardwicke has published, 

 a little book on Cryptogams, by Johann Nave, which we feel sure 

 must be very useful to those who wish to study and collect these 

 plants. Methods of preparing and collecting Marine Algae, Diatoms, 

 Desmids, Fungi, Lichens, and Mosses are given in great detail. 

 Strange instruments to be used in tearing or raking up sea-weeds 

 are figured and described, and all the various appliances in favour 

 with collectors of Diatoms and Desmids are brought before the 

 reader. Twenty-six neat little plates, containing drawings of the 

 most striking forms of the plants to which the volume is dedicated, 

 are dispersed through its pages. The book is in size small enough 

 for the pocket, and may fairly be recommended to all who are in 

 want of instruction in the somewhat difficult and careful manipu- 

 lation required in order to preserve specimens of Cryptogamic plants. 



Sowerby's English Botany. — The new, greatly enlarged, and 

 revised edition of this celebrated work, now being published under 

 the direction of Mr. Boswell Syme, with popular descriptions of 

 plants by Mrs. Lankester, has come to the conclusion of its seventh 

 volume. Nearly four-fifths of the British Flora have now been 

 completed, the last part issued finishing with the Amarantaceae. 

 Whilst this is going on, Professor Babington, of Cambridge, is 

 supervising the issue of a supplement to the previous edition of 

 * Sowerby's Botany,' which is to contain descriptions and figures of 

 all the species of plants recognized as British since the issue of the 

 original work. Mr. Salter, late of the Geological Survey, is exe- 

 cuting the plates, and Professor Babington's name is a guarantee 

 for the letterpress. There appears to be some difficulty in obtaining 

 subscribers for this supplement, which, however, we can heartily 

 commend. 



The Botanical Department of the British Museum. — The 

 principal business of the department during the past year has, we 



