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POPULAE SCIENCE EEVIEW. 
Ancient Chinese Eclipses. — Mr. Williams has drawn up an interesting 
account of thirty-six ancient eclipses, recorded in the Chinese annals, 
commencing with one 720 b.c. and ending w T ith that 495 b.c. He is of 
opinion that they were possibly observed in the state of Loo. They will 
serve, as Mr. Williams hopes, to test the accuracy of Chinese history. 
Photographs of the Moon. — Mr. De la Rue is now engaged in amplifying 
his original and small photographs of the moon to the size of Maedler’s 
great map of thirty-eight inches in diameter, and the results obtained are 
extremely satisfactory. 
BOTANY. 
A Species of St. Johnswort new to Britain. — This has been discovered by 
Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs, and a notice of the plant appears in “The 
Journal of Botany” for February. It has been identified with Hypericum 
undulatum , which though widely distributed over Southern Europe, 
Northern Africa, Madeira, and the Azores, has not before been observed 
in England. Mr. Briggs first collected the plant in August, 1861. It 
grows in great quantities upon a small stream which flows into the Plym, 
and in two or three other localities within a radius of about six miles. 
The stem is more or less quadrangular, and reaches a height of from two 
to three feet ; the leaves which are oblong and embracing, are covered with 
transparent dots and a network of pellucid vessels. The inflorescence is a 
corymbose pannicle ; the sepals are always erect, and the petals which are 
of an obovate form are tinged with red on the outside. Like its kindred it 
affects a boggy soil. 
The Common Ling , an American Plant. — That Calluna vulgaris is really 
as much a native of the New World as of the Old would appear from Mr. 
Hewett C. Watson’s examination of plants purchased by him at the Lin- 
nean Society’s sale in November last. The occurrence of this plant in 
Massachusetts, U.S., was recorded in 1861, by Professor Asa Gray. Since, 
however, the latter botanist expressed his opinion that it might have been 
introduced, the matter remained for some time in an unsatisfactory state 
of uncertainty. It is now a settled fact that the Common Ling, or some 
plant identical with it, is really an American species. Amongst Mr. 
Watson’s purchases was a parcel bearing the label “A collection of dried 
plants made by — McCormack, Esq., and presented to Mr. David Don,” 
and within this bundle were specimens of Calluna vulgaris , which unfor- 
tunately were devoid of flowers, but which bore a label stating that they 
were found at the “ Head of St. Mary’s Bay, Trepassey Bay also very 
abundant, S.E. of Newfoundland, considerable tracts of it.” The plants 
thus labelled exactly resembled the Common Ling, and although Mr. 
Durand suggests that the American plant is a larger flowered species than 
ours, there seems good reason for believing that such is not the case. Yide 
Natural History Review for January, and Journal of Botany ion February. 
Arrangement of the Salix Species. — This complex and puzzling group of 
plants, which has produced so many controversies among our most dis- 
tinguished botanists, has at last been systematized scientifically. The task 
was undertaken by Dr. Andersson, of Stockholm, who was certainly well 
