7<> 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



tempt fo establish a similar valuable means of intercommunication amongst 

 the members of one of the most extensively studied of our sister-sciences. 

 "We hope it will do well. 



Rambles in Search of Wild Flowers. By Margaret Hues. London. L863. 



Spring-time is coming ; the tender buds are already showing their first 

 green tops ; and soon the buttercups and primroses, on meadow and on 

 road-bank, will catch the brighter sunshine and bind its rays in golden 

 flowers. Truly the geologist may feel rejoicingly the coming return 

 of Spring's verdant scenes, for is he not a naturalist of the present 

 as well as of the past? In those " sweet flowers," — sun-smiles caught and 

 bound to earth, — " the oak-tree and the mountain pine" are lessons of to-day 

 for him by which to read the great eventful past to which his mind inces- 

 santly reverts. " This world is full of beauty, like other worlds above ; " 

 and in the silent rocks, at least for him, are records of perished earthly 

 scenes, grander if not as fair as those spread out around. 



" Gather the Roses while you may ; 

 Old Time is still a- -flying ; 

 And this same flower, which smiles to-day, 

 To-morrow will he dying." 



Amongst the dead leaves that fell in the primaeval forests of our old 

 earth ages before the merry laugh of the maiden Eve was echoed by the 

 warbling birds in Paradise, Nature had caught, and in her stony tomb had 

 kept, some few faded flowers. Was it to tell us, who were to live in after- 

 times, that the fields the great beasts tenanted, and whom we know now 

 only by these dry and sapless bones, were steaming with fragrant perfume 

 and gaily painted with living colours ? Or was it to teach that solemner 

 lesson, read alike in the ponderous mountain, the solid earth, and — 



c: In the Rose 

 In its hright array — 

 Hear'st thou what these buds disclose ? 



' Passing away.' " 



Whoever rambles this coming Spring through " meadows green or 

 upland lawn," through " wood or dingle," on "mountain-top" or "rugged 

 heath " in search of wild flower, will be much the wiser, and very likely 

 very much the happier, for having taken with them the charming bouquets 

 of flowers, poesy, and scientific lore so elegantly culled by Miss Plues. 



The Future ; a Journal of Philosophical Research and Criticism, embra- 

 cing the most interesting Results of Modern Discovery and Opinion in 

 Cosmoloaical, Antiquarian, and Fthnological Science. Edited by Luke 

 Burke, ]Esq., F.E.S. Svo. Trubner and Co. 1862. 



Those of our readers who are fond of reading scientific subjects dis- 

 cussed in an open spirit, will be rejoiced to learn that the above perio- 

 dica! is again in existence, and will be regularly continued until further 

 notice. The twenty-second number of the second volume, which is now 

 before us, contains a spirited article on the battle in Section D, on the 

 "great Hippocampus controversy," by the editor, who in a most elo- 

 quent and argumentative manner, whether we agree with him or not,attacks 



