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old north-country proverb, “February fill dyke,” completely falsified. Frosty nights from 6th to 13th, Vegetation active. One consequence of the mild winter is seen in the abundance of keep for stock. Turnips are in excess of the requirements of most farmers. Good hay £3 per ton. Many spring flowers have appeared with the winter aconite and snowdrop, which usually follow those harbingers of spring, violets, primroses, yellow crocus, double daisies, Erica carnea, Anemone apennina, A. blanda, Myosotis dissitiflora, Rhododendron dauricum amongst the number. Belmont Villas.—Very mild month. Temp. below freezing point on five nights only. Mean 41.7°. S.W. winds on 22 days. Castle Ashby.—Rainfall about average of last five years, (1.59in.) “February fill dyke” has a bad character, which, however, appears to be the reverse of the truth. Results of last five years at this station show it to be the driest month in the year except May, (1.51in. average.) Burley-on-the-Hill.—Snow and rain on 13th. Altarnun Vicarage.—A remarkably dry month; the first ten days rather frosty. Orleton.—First twelve days dry and cold, with severe frosts, but no snow; remainder of month warm but cloudy, little sunshine, rainfall nearly an inch below average. Brampton, near Chesterfield.—8th, hazel catkins; 13th, snow on ground; 18th, ash leaf; 19th, lesser celandine and dog's mercury in flower; Rosa arvensis and sweet violet on 25th; Rosa canina on 28th.

After reading the numerous text-books of Elementary Botany which the last few years have produced, and which repeat the old, old truths in a very similar and monotonous way, it is a relief to find one which strikes out a new line as this does. Were it for nothing else, it would be remarkable for the entire absence of the stock woodcuts, which have been repeated in one book after another till they have grown wearisome. Every one of the drawings, mostly by the author himself, with which this little book is adorned, is new. This point, however, concerns more the teacher than the taught; it is of greater consequence that they are exceedingly numerous, and bear the mark of having been copied direct from nature, with the exception of a few, which are all the more conspicuous amidst the general excellence. Some of them, as those illustrating the terms monœcious and diacious, will be more instructive to young readers than a lengthy paragraph of description. A few of the illustrations are misleading, noticeably that of the cone (p. 23,) the salver-shaped corolla (p. 20,) the silique (p. 41,) and the lichen (p. 85.) That of the Volvox on p. 86 is strikingly inaccurate. The microscope with which Mr. Bland saw this must have resembled Sam. Weller's "patent gas microscope of hextra power." Imagine a distinctly oval body. adorned with eight large tubercles, each furnished with two stout cilia, whose length is equal to half the diameter of the Volvox!

The value of the book is marred by the inaccuracy of some of the derivations given. An Antheridium is so called not because it is "like a flower," but because in function it "resembles an anther," if it and similar words should not rather he considered diminutives; and an Archegonium is not the "chief female," but the "beginning of the female organ." We may also notice that the useful fibres of flax and hemp are derived from the inner layer of the bark (p. 12,) as the author himself