﻿Geology and Natural History. 485 



The decay of crystalline rocks, a " natural system in Mineralogy," 

 history of Pre-Cambrian rocks ; on Serpentines, and " the Taconic 

 question in Geology." 



4. Index der Kry stall for "men der Miner 'alien , von Victor 

 Goldschmidt. Band I, Lieferung 2; pp. 289 to 601. Berlin, 

 1886. (Julius Springer). — The second part of Dr. Goldschmidt' s 

 great work — noticed on page 475 of the last volume — completes 

 the first of the three proposed volumes. AH the mineral species 

 through E are included here. The whole work is a model of 

 thoroughness and accuracy and in clearness of presentation and 

 beauty of typographical work it leaves nothing to be desired. It 

 is to be hoped that the author's labors will receive the support 

 from mineralogists which they decidedly deserve. 



5. Botanical Notes. — Lamarck' 's Herbarium, which has been 

 for more than half a century the property of the late Professor 

 Rceper and at Rostock — far out of the way — has now, it is stated, 

 been bought for the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, where it will be 

 much more accessible. Probably it is not large, nor at all com- 

 plete in his types of the species of the earlier volumes of the 

 Dictionary. But so far as it goes it will be more helpful now that 

 it is in its proper place. 



The extensive series of drawings and descriptions of Manilla 

 plants, made in the seventeenth century by the Jesuit Kamel or 

 Camellus (in honor of whom was the genus Camellia nsunt'd), and 

 which Ray refers to as in his possession, had utterly disappeared. 

 From an account recently given by M Paque to the Royal 

 Botanical Society of Belgium, it appears that this work exists, in 

 fine condition, in the library of the Jesuit's College at Louvain ; 

 that it belonged to A. L. de Jussieu at his death, was bought by 

 Count de Limminghe at the sale of Jussieu's library in 1858, and 

 presented to the College where it is now preserved. There are 257 

 botanical plates, containing 556 figures. 



Dr. Saint-Lager has issued a new bulletin on Le Prods de la 

 Nomenclature Botanique et Zoologique (Paris, Bail Here, pp. 54), 

 in which his well known reformatory ideas are reiterated. 



Phytobiological Observations, on the Forms of Seedlings and the 

 causes to which they are due, is the subject of the address to the 

 Linnean Society of its retiring President, Sir John Lubbock, at 

 the anniversary meeting in May last, now published, with copius 

 illustrations, as an article in the Journal of that Society, No. 147. 

 It brings to view adaptations rather than causes, in the old 

 fashioned sense of the latter word. 



Hooker's Icones Plantarurn, vol. xvi, part 2, has just been 

 brought out under the auspices of the " Bentham Trustees." It 

 comprises plates 1526 to 1550, inclusive ; none of North American 

 plants. But Professor Oliver figures a new Chinese genus, Plagi- 

 ospermum, which is thought to be allied to the exceptional genus 

 Glossopetcdon. The alliance is not obvious, and the new genus 

 has rather a Rosaceous look. a. g. 



