192 
XATURE XOTES 
155. Balsam Poplar. — All the above in my garden are dying from the 
top — all the other trees are flourishing. I am told twenty-five years is the natural 
life of this tree. We are on clayey soil ; has this anything to do with it ? 
H'est Pelton Vicarage^ Edward J. Taylor, F.S.A. 
Co. Durham. 
ASTRONOMICAL NOTES FOR OCTOBER, 1908. 
Venus will be favourably visible in the morning twilight, rising on October i 
at 1-47 a.m., and on the 28th at 2.47 a.m., or more than four hours before 
the sun. She will be situated in Leo and close to the planet Jupiter on the 
14th, when this pair of brilliant orbs will make an attractive spectacle before 
sunrise. 
Mars, situated in Virgo, will be perceptible as a morning star at the end of 
the month, but he will appear small owing to his great distance. 
Jupiter will come tvell into view during October, rising at 2.46 a.m. on the 
1st, and at 1.27 a.m. on the 28th. He should be looked for near the lustrous 
Venus on the 14th. 
Saturn will be observable to the best advantage during the month, as he 
will be visible nearly all night. He will occupy a position below and to the 
east of the “ Great Square of Pegasus,” and may be readily identified by his 
very steady, dull light in comparison with that exhibited by the fixed stars. 
Uranus may be distinguished in the evening hours near the star Omicron in 
Sagittarius, but this planet is only just within reach of the naked eye. 
Meteors will be numerous on the nights between the i8th and 22nd, and 
especially in the morning hours. They will be swift in motion, leave bright 
streaks along their paths, and their flights will be directed from the north- 
eastern region of Orion. 
The Zodiacal light may be well observed in the eastern sky in the mornings of 
October. 
A Comet will be visible to the naked eye in the evenings passing down the 
western sky in the neighbourhood of Lyra and eastern part of Hercules. 
W. F. D. 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
The Voting Botanist. By \V. Percival Westell and C. S. Cooper. With 8 
coloured and 63 other plates, drawn from Nature by C. F. Newall. 7y X 5 in. 
Pp. 200. Methuen. Price 3s. 6d. net. 
The plates of this low-priced work will probably of themselves secure for it a 
considerable sale, so that we may hope to see it pass into another edition in 
which the slight errors in the text can readily be removed. The rules as to 
capital initial letters to the names of certain species are ignored; “John’s” 
appears for “ Johns’ ” ; wood-sorrel and horse-chestnut are included in a list of 
simple leaves; the remarkable phrase ‘'Head section of flower of Daisy” forms 
part of the legend to one of the plates ; Verbena is, as is too often the case in 
text-books, given as an example of the spike ; and on the back of another plate 
the w'inged seed of Goatsbeard and Maple, and a rose termed Rosa tormentosa, are 
mentioned. Drosera is not from the Greek drosos, nor is its secretion a red fluid ; 
LegtiminosecE is an unusual spelling ; the perfume of Meadowsweet is, we believe, 
due, not to prussic acid, but to coumarin ; Charles Darwin, as we have often had 
occasion to point out, was never “ Professor” Darwin ; and his son Francis long 
ago abandoned the belief that the dissolved remains of insects are absorbed by the 
stem of the Teasel. Such verbal mistakes are also numerous in the Glossary, 
where kline is translated “ a bud ” ; and “ pentamerous ” is derived from “ metron, 
a measure.” The author anticipates criticism of his colour index, and we are 
bound to say that an arrangement which groups Bee-Orchis, Bugle, Comfrey, 
