10 
NOTICES OF SERIALS. 
The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. No. 85, January; No. 
86, February; No. 87, March, 1855. 8vo. With plates. London: Taylor 
and Francis. Price 2s. 6d. each. 
No. 85, January:—(Rev. W. Smith) Notes of an Excursion to the South of 
France and the Auvergne, in search of Diatomaceas, with a plate; (W. H. 
Benson) Amended Characters of the singular Lvmneadous genus, Camptoceras, 
and a Description of a new Ancylus, inhabitants of north-western India; also 
Characters of the genus Opisthoporus, an eastern form of Cylostomacea, with 
remarks on its Affinities, and notes on several Opercula ; (P. II. Gosse) On Arti¬ 
ficial Sea-water. When noticing Mr. Warrington’s analysis of sea-water in the 
previous number of the “Annals,’’ we observed, that sea-water made according to 
Mr. Gosse’s plan seemed to agree with the sea-weeds and anemones as well as their 
native element; and in the remarks now made by Mr. Gosse, we are glad to find 
this view corroborated, and that in the most decisive manner, by the statements 
here made. (J. Gwyn Jeffreys) Notes on Swiss Mollusca. Mr. Jeffreys em¬ 
ployed a summer and autumn at Lausanne, on the Lake of Geneva, in collecting 
and investigating the Swiss mollusca; and a goodly list he presents for the assist¬ 
ance of those who are interested in the subject of the geographical distribution of 
species. He also records the discovery of a new Pupa—viz., P. Halleriana—and 
gives us a list of those species that are Swiss, but not yet recorded as British ; and 
British, but not hitherto indicated as Swiss. From this latter we miss Helix 
nemoralis and Limneus stagnalis, both common British mollusca, but not recorded, 
at least in Mr. Jeffreys’s list, as frequenting Switzerland. (J. H. Balfour, M.D., 
Professor of Botany, Edinburgh) Sketch of the Life of the late Professor Edward 
Forbes. From this sketch, which was read before the Botanical Society of Edin¬ 
burgh, on the 14th December, 1854, we select the following :—Edward Forbes was 
born in the Isle of Man, in the 12th of February, 1815. When not more than 
twelve years old he had imbibed a taste for natural history. He visited London 
at the age of sixteen, and was engaged there in studying the art of drawing, under 
Sass. He came to Edinburgh, in 1831, and entered the medical class. Though 
he attended nearly all the classes required for gradation, yet he did not take out 
the M.D. degree. In 1833 he visited Norway, and made considerable collections, 
both geological and botanical. He became a member of the British Association in 
1834, and was one of the most regular attendants on its meetings. He was the 
first who called the attention of the association to the subject of dredging, and 
secured their co-operation and aid in this most important matter. He appears to 
have visited the Alps in 1835; and about this time he, with other eminent natu¬ 
ralists, founded the Botanical Society, which held its first meeting on the 9th of 
February, 1836. In 1839, at the Birmingham meeting of the British Association, 
he, and other naturalists, finding that they had not their proper place at the con¬ 
vivial meetings, instituted a separate ordinary. The first Natural History Section 
Dinner happened to take place in an inn of that town having the sign of the Red 
Lion ; and, ever after, the Natural History Club thus commenced was designated 
“ the Red Lion Club.” The Red Lions have had their annual social reunions at 
every meeting of the association since that time. In 1841 he published his beau¬ 
tiful monograph on the “ British Star Fishes.” In the following year we find him 
engaged in the JEgean, and coasts of Asia Minor, where his life was placed in 
