THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



127 



of the most persevering work having been accomplished. This is so extensive 

 and interesting a branch of the subject, that it desires more extended notice 

 than can be comprised in a brief review. A decided improvement is the 

 numbering of the genera, which now amounts to 542 and a complete index 

 printed on the cover is a distinct advantage. Five new orders are added, and 

 the arrangement both of orders and species are considerably altered which 

 makes it rather puzzling at first, especially as it does not follow either of the 

 two more popular floras which are in most general use. But, undoubtedly, 

 the most irritating alteration is the wholesale change in the nomenclature, it 

 is all very well to say that a rose by another name would smell as sweet, but 

 it is peculiarly aggravating just when one has got nicely familiar with the 

 names as well as the forms of flowers, to find that you .must unlearn the old 

 patronymier and call them by a new cognomen. Doubtless this is all right 

 and proper from a scientific point of view, but it does seem regretable from the 

 popular aspect, particularly when the name was easy and appropriate, to find 

 Air a transformed into Desc/iampsia, Cynodon to Fibichia, Triodia to Sieglingia. 

 To the more youthful botanists whose minds are facile and receptive, such 

 changes are easily mastered, but, to the aged veteran these ruptures in the 

 continuity of associations are like severing the ties of old friendships, causing 

 a painful wrench. Several blanks are noticeable, such as the genus Agrimonia 

 having no census numbers attached, but withal the new edition will be wel- 

 comed as a boon by all botanists. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Exceptional Proceedings of a Eemale Templi. — Some months since 

 Mr, Harrison, of Barnsley, kindly sent me a female Dasypola templi, which 

 I placed outside under cover, during the exceptionally severe winter we have 

 had. It was buried in snow for more than two weeks, the extreme cold con- 

 tinuing quite up to the time it should have deposited its eggs (say about the 

 20th to the 24th March), and it did not move until early in April. On the 

 8th day of April it deposited 72 eggs, straggling upon the gauze which 

 covered the flower-pot. In this flower-pot was planted solid full with pars- 

 nips, which had begun to grow, the roots being kept about one inch above 

 the soil. On the 16th, 17th, and 18th of the month she deposited 238 more 

 eggs, making a total of 310 ; these also were all scattered about and adhering 

 to the gauze covering, not a single egg being upon either leaves or roots of 

 the parsnips ! Why she should have ceased to lay on the 8th and then com- 

 menced again on the 16th, and kept on laying for three days, is a puzzle to 

 me, and is what I think exceptional. I shall be pleased to hear if others 



