6o6 
Notes. 
gration from Europe and Africa, he remarks : — “ Our original 
vegetation has very little power of resistance. Its very variation 
is a proof of a certain want of vitality, for any more vigorous 
organisation, by superseding the weaker ones, would have pro- 
duced originally the monotony developed at present by the 
immigration of foreign plants.” It is lamentable that plants 
triumph in the struggle for existence in an inverse ratio to their \ 
beauty and utility. 
According to a report by Dr. Delpech, on Apiculture in Paris, 
it appears that the bees, when they penetrate into sugar- 
refineries, will not touch treacle if pure syrups are to be found, 
and in places where both cane and beet-root syrups are in store 
they completely ignore the latter. 
The following mode of preparing glycerin-gelatine for mount- 
ing microscopical objedts is given by Herr Otto Brandt, Secretary 
of the Berlin Microscopical Society : — A quantity of the best 
white gelatine is to be cut up coarsely, and laid overnight in a 
vessel with distilled water, so that it may swell up during the 
night. In the morning it is taken out, squeezed in the hand, 
and placed to melt (without adding fresh water) in a glass cup 
in the water-bath ; as soon as the mass has become fluid add to 
it (stirring continually) about one and a half times as much 
glycerin as was taken of the gelatine. Filtering is a matter of 
vital importance ; filtering-paper does not allow the fluid to pass 
through sufficiently, and flannel makes it worse than before. It 
is best cleared by being strained through a glass funnel with 
some spun glass pressed into the lower part of the cone : this 
must be kept warm during the process of filtration in a suitable 
water-bath. Some drops of carbolic acid should be added to the 
fluid product of the filtering. 
Mr. R. Bullen Newton, Assistant Naturalist, under Professor 
Huxley, in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, 
has received an appointment in the geological department of the 
British Museum. 
Errata. 
Page 368, line 10 from bottom, for “ temperate ” read “ temperature.” 
Page 370, line 21 from bottom, for “ compadt ” read “ impadt,” 
Page 373, line 8 from bottom, for “ 5 per cent ” read “ 5 0 .” 
Page 374, line 15, for “ simplicity ” read “ ellipticity.” 
