May, 1889. 
WAYSIDE NOTES. 
121 
It is intended to hold the first Meeting under this plan at 
Rugby, probably early in July, but the date will be finally 
determined a little later. 
The subject of the Secretaryship of the Union was also 
discussed. Mr. Lawson Tait undertook the post of Honorary 
Secretary; while in order to relieve the present Secretary of 
the office, which he has for some time wished to resign, the 
Committee appointed (subject to his consent, which however 
has not yet been definitely given) a gentleman to act with 
him for this year, with the intention of after that taking the 
office altogether. 
The Secretary was directed to request each Society in the 
Union to contribute at least one paper in the year to the 
“ Midland Naturalist.” 
A list of gentlemen to be asked to act as adjudicators for 
the Darwin Medal was then drawn up. 
“ The Middle Lias of Northamptonshire.” —The interesting papers 
which have appeared under this title in the pages of this magazine 
have been collected and reprinted, with additions, in a compact 
volume, which is published by Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 
London, price 3s. 6d. The subject is considered under the following 
heads :—(1) Stratigraphically, (2) Palaeontologically, (3) Economically, 
(4) As a source of water supply, and (5) As a mitigator of floods. The 
author is Mr. Beeby Thompson, F.G.S., F.C.S., of Northampton. 
Flora of Derbyshire.— The Rev. W. Hunt Painter, a well-known 
botanist, has issued a circular announcing the speedy publication of a 
Flora of Derbyshire on which he has been engaged for some years. It 
is intended to serve as a companion volume to “ Cybele Britannica,” 
the “ Compendium ” thereto, and other publications of the late Mr. H. 
C. Watson, as well as to the “Flora of the Lake District,” by 
Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., F.L.S. The book will contain an introductory 
chapter on the Geology of Derbyshire, and an account of its Botanical 
Bibliography. All the local critical genera have, we are informed, 
been submitted to botanists who have made a special study of them. 
A map of the county will be given. The price to subscribers will not 
exceed 5/6 ; after publication the price will be 7/6. Any of our readers 
who may desire to possess this book should send in their names, 
without delay, to the author, the Rev. W. H. Painter, Ivnypersley, 
Congleton. The Duke of Devonshire, Lord de Tabley, Professor C. C. 
Babington, Mr. J. G. Baker, and many other botanists of eminence 
have already given their names as subscribers. 
A Travelling Naturalist.— It will, we think, interest our readers 
to know that Mr. E. W. Burgess, whose paper on the Oban Foramini- 
fera is now appearing in these pages, is a member of the D’Oyly 
Carte Travelling Opera Company, recently performing at Birmingham, 
and that he has to seize his opportunities of studying Natural History 
during the intervals of his travels through the kingdom. Mr. Burgess 
