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Bland’s Lessons on Elementary Botany, reviewed in our last number, has, we learn, been revised, and new editions of Parts 1 and 2 are in the press, and will he ready in a few days.
A Cat Walking Seventy Miles.—The Sheffield Daily Telegraph says a family recently removed from Dawley, Shropshire, to Nottingham. They took with them a cat which they had had for years. A few days after arrival at Nottingham: she disappeared. The other day the cat walked into the old house at Dawley, to the great surprise of the neighbours. She was very footsore and lame, but otherwise all right. The distance travelled by the cat is over seventy miles. It is strange how the cat traversed the whole distance without being lost or worried.
Birmingham Philosophical Society.—The first part of Vol. I. of the proceedings of this Society, (Session 1876-7,) has just been issued. Its contents are as under:—“New Researches in Contractility and Elasticity,” by Professor R. Norris, M.D., F.R.S.F.; “Vortex Motion,” by J. Hopkinson, D.Sc., M.A.; “The Kinetic Theory of Gases,” by the Rev. H. W. Watson, M.A.; "The Study of Science as an Instrument of Higher Education,” by G. Hookham, M.A.; "The Place of Archæology in Science," by James Kenward, F.S.A.; and "The Evolution of the Sense of Hearing,” by Lawson Tait, F.R.C.S.
The Herefordshire Pomona, about to be published by the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, is being got on with vigorously. he letterpress of Part I. is quite ready. and its publication will take place as soon as the coloured plates can be finished. Prepared as vis by such competent hands, the Herefordshire Pomona will no doubt he a work of considerable merit, The introductory matter of the first part consists of an elaborate treatise on "The Early History of the Apple and Pear," mythically, mythologically, and historically considered. This is followed by a sketch of "The Life of Thomas Andrew Knight and his Work in the Orchard." The common belief in the limited duration of varieties of apples is here stoutly called in question; and the results of Mr. Knight's experiments in the production of new sorts of apples and pears by hybridisation, is also fully entered into. Tu short, the introduction is the result of much work and much thought; and, what is of still more importance, containing matter In practical physiology that can scarcely fail to make others work and think too. Then will begin the main object of the Pomona—to give beautifully coloured plates of all the best varieties of apples and pears, &c. Communications from intending subscribers should be addressed to Mr. J. R. Symonds, Hereford.
Mr. Boulton’s Microscopist's and Naturalist’s Studio.—Mr. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., has contributed a note in the current number of the "Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science," on the agency recently established by Mr. Bolton, at No. 17, Ann Street, Birmingham, for the supply of microscopic organisms to students and class teachers, from which we have much pleasure in copying the following extract:—"If serious students of our pond-fauna and flora will avail themselves of Mr. Bolton's services, and not only purchase from him examples of the specimens he has on hand, but will also send to him supplies of such rarities as they may find, for the purpose of distribution among his correspondents and customers, we shall have started among us an agency which will be of immense service not only to the individual student but also (and perhaps chiefly) to the teacher who requires to be able to obtain supplies of given microscopic organisms for his practical classes, and to feel with absolute certainty that the specimens needed will be forthcoming on the appointed day. Mr. Bolton can, at present, be depended on for certain forms; after a little time he will be able no doubt to enlarge his list."