NOTICES OF SERIALS. 
23 
consistent with each other, but no one , as far as my knowledge extends, is con¬ 
sistent with himself. It is difficult to believe or understand the trouble which this 
diversity of practice gives to an editor, more especially should it so fall out that 
his contributor, having steadfast faith in his own critical sagacity, demands to see a 
proof; for then the said contributor, being in absolute command of a ship that has no 
rudder, and purring complacently over the unwonted authority he is enjoying, is sure 
to assume the printer to be in error, and incontinently to alter every small letter to a 
capital, and every capital letter to a small one. It is with a view to relieve ento¬ 
mologists of this critical labour that I suggest this simple rule—As all specific 
names must be substantives or adjectives, let every substantive (nominative or 
genitive), and no adjective, have an initial capital. One exception only occurs to 
me, but exceptio constat regulam ; it is when a man’s name is converted into an 
adjective, as Mitterbacheriana or Abildgaardana—I don’t much envy these insects 
or their godfathers—then the capitals must, of course, be preserved as signboards to 
testify to future generations that it is mortal men have been thus immortalized; 
otherwise, the cui bono of these ponderous monuments of genius, like that of their 
fellows on Salisbury Plain, must greviously puzzle philosophers yet unborn.” 
(W. T. Bree) Gonepteryx Rhamni, double-brooded ; (H. G. Atkinson) Capture of 
Gastropacha ilicifolia on Cannoch Chase; (W. Machin) Occurrence of Notodonta 
carmelita in Kent. 
Hooker’s Journal of Botany, and Kew Garden Miscellany. No. 75, 
April; No. 76, May; No. 77, June, 1855. 8vo. London: Lovell Reeve. 
Price 2s. each, with a Plate. 
No. 75, April:—(Sir W. J. Hooker, &c., &c.) Kew Garden Museum, or an 
Account of the Origin, and some of the Contents, of the Museum of Economic 
Botany attached to the Royal Gardens at Kew—continued from vol. vi., p. 26. 
This account of the contents of the Economic Museum, Kew, is most interesting. 
We hope to see it, when complete, reprinted in a separate form. Besides the 
mere names of the specimens in the Museum, we have short accounts of their 
properties, habitats, and the manner that is adopted in procuring the various pro¬ 
ducts which render the plant valuable in an economic point of view. This adds 
very much to the interest, as well as the value, of the catalogue. Under the head 
of Ord. Cistaceae, Cistus Family, we find the following account of how the resin 
called Labdanum is procured:—“Seven or eight country-fellows, in the heat of 
the day, when not a breath of wind is stirring, in their shirts and drawers, brush 
the plants with whips, the straps whereof, by rubbing against the leaves, lick off a 
sort of odoriferous glue, sticking to the foliage ; this is part of the nutritious juice of 
the plant, which exudes in shining drops, clear as turpentine. When the whips 
are sufficiently laden with this grease, they take a knife and scrape the straps clean, 
making it up into a mass, or cakes of different size. A man who is diligent will 
gather 3 lbs. per day, or more, which sells for a crown on the spot. The work is 
rather unpleasant than laborious; because it must be done in the sultry heat of the 
day, and during the most dead calm. About 50 cwt. of it are annually collected 
in Crete, and sent exclusively to Constantinople.’’ We would suggest that a MS. 
catalogue, on this principle, should be kept at the Museum of Economic Botany 
attached to the Botanical Gardens of the Royal Dublin Society. (C. F. Meisner) 
New Proteacese of Australia—continued from page 78 ; (Drs. Hooker and 
