us at least, early spring flowers. I almost fancy I have somewhere read (or else the idea itself has occurred to my mind), that no species of narcissus or daffodil was intended, but rather Amaryllis lùtea, the yellow autumnal lily. was always a Be this as it may, however, at least "flexi vimen acanthi great puzzler, and has afforded much matter for discussion among the learned. On referring to Martyn's Georgics, I see it suggested, from the impossibility of finding any one plant with which all the characters ascribed to acanthus will agree, that the poet in all probability speaks in different passages of two distinct plants under that name, the one a tree, and the other an herb. From the well-known anecdote about the origin of the Corinthian capital, we might be led, reasonably enough, to identify the acanthus of the ancients with the Linnean genus of the same name. On the other hand, Sir J. Smith, if I remember right (for I cannot immediately refer to the passage), strenuously contends that the acanthus of Virgil is no other than the common holly (I'lex Aquifolium). Possibly this great botanist, when he broached such an opinion, might not have sufficiently attended to the various passages of Virgil in which the acanthus is mentioned, and the apparently discordant accounts given of it. For, as Professor Martyn observes, in one place Virgil speaks of it as a tree that bears berries, and is always green : "baccas semper frondentis acanthi." (Georg. ii. 119.) Again, in Georg. iv. 123. already quoted, he seems to speak of it as a twining plant, and a little afterwards he mentions it as a garden plant: "Ille comam mollis jam tum tondebat acanthi." The epithet mollis is surely quite inapplicable to the holly, and except by way of contrast (as Linnæus employs it in naming one species), almost equally so to the modern genus Acánthus. It is a remark, perhaps too obvious to mention, that much allowance must be made for the heightening of poetical diction, and that the same accuracy of botanical description must not be looked for in the beautiful lines of the Mantuan bard, as we may fairly expect in the Spècies Plantarum of the great Swede. On these and similar knotty points, Mr. Editor, I should be glad of further information, through the pages of your Magazine. Yours, &c.-B. Coventry, Sept. 8. The Specimen of the Shrub from Claremont, sent by Miss C. Watson, in order to ascertain its name, is the Grevillea (in commemoration of the Right Hon. Charles Greville) punícea, Proteaceae (fig. 117.), an elegant shrub introduced a few years ago from New South Wales, and usually kept in the green-house. If gathered in the open shrubbery, as our correspondent says it was, it must have been turned out there for the summer season, or by way of experiment. Cond. Fossil Plants. -The enclosed drawings (fig. 118.) are a continuation of the fossil plants found in the Little Mine Coal in Clifton, near Manchester. The figures a, b, c, d, e, and f, I have not been able to meet with in any other mine; they are drawn the full size, and, with the exception of f, in nearly the same situation as when found. I have met with the plant g in most mines in Lancashire. I should feel greatly obliged, if any of your readers would inform me to what order and genus they belong. Yours, &c. - B. St. Helen's, June 4. 1829. The Dadley's Spring. Sir, The corn spring in this parish, which I gave a short notice of, p. 297. of your Magazine, I visited on the 21st of August, and found that it had entirely ceased to flow. The exact period of its cessation I am unable to state; but I know that it was flowing about the middle of June or later, though with a somewhat diminished stream. From the appearance which the channel presented on the 21st of August, I should suppose the spring must have ceased to flow for at least a fortnight or more. Is it not fair to infer that its operations may have been stopped by the long continued drought in the early part of the summer? The late heavy rains have probably not yet had time to produce a counter effect. Allow me to remark, that your printer has committed a slight mistake in the orthography of the name of the above-mentioned spring: it should be Dadley's spring, not Dudley's, as printed at p. 297. Yours, &c. - W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory, August 26. 1829. The Corn Spring (p. 297. 408). — May not this be accounted for on the principle of the intermitting springs explained in the Library of Useful Knowledge, under Hydrostatics? - John Mearns. Shobden Court, near Leominster, Sept. 27. 1829. Muphatamet's Optical Phenomenon (p. 108.) is perfectly easy of solution, without having recourse to any supposition about the effect of refraction. No shadows can be visible unless produced by bodies obstructing the rays or stream of light, whether from the body or from the reflected image of the The first and darkest shadow was that of the passenger on the wall, produced in the ordinary way (fig. 119. a). The second was the shadow of sun. the same passenger (b), produced by the obstruction of the stream of reflected light from the sun's image presented on the watery surface of the street, as shown in the diagram annexed. As proof of this, let any one stand between a wall and a piece of water (or looking-glass laid on the ground in the line of the sun), so as the spectator can see both the sun and the sun's image at the same time; he will have a double shadow on the walls quite visible to himself or others. This effect is often seen, or may be seen, in well-lighted rooms where there are plate looking-glasses or mirrors. -J.M. INDEX TO BOOKS REVIEWED AND NOTICED. Ajasson de Grandsaigne's Resumé d'Ichthy- Curtis's Guide to an Arrangement of British Cuvier, F.'s Dents (des) Mammifères, 54. VOL. II. - No. 10. Cuvier's Règne Animal, noticed, $60. Cuvier and Valenciennes's Histoire Naturelle Dejean's Coleoptères, 55. Donovan's Nests and Eggs of British Birds, Duméril's Classe des Insectes, 55. Duponchel's Lepidoptères de France, 365. Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological So- Goring and Pritchard's Objects for the Micro- Le Keux's Illustrations of Natural History, noticed, 359. Polydore Roux's Ornithologie Provençale, 55. Richardson's Faúna Boreàli-Americàna, &c, Robineau Desvoidy's Organisation vertébrale Roux's Crustacés de la Mediterranée, 365. Steffens's Anthropologie, 54. Stephens's Catalogue of British Insects, an- Stephens's Illustrations of British Entomology, Stephens's Nomenclature of British Insects, K K Stephens's Systematic Catalogue of British In- | Saint-Hilaire, &c.'s Flora Brasilia Meridionalis, Swainson's Zoological Illustrations, noticed, 51. Thompson's Zoological Researches, noticed, 51; Vigors's Zoological Journal, noticed, 49. Werner's Atlas des Oiseaux d'Europe, 55. Wilson's Illustrations of Zoology, No. VII., re- Brongniart's Classification Naturelle des Cham- Burgess's Eidodendron, noticed, 52. Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 52. Decandolle's Familles des Crassulacées, &c., 56. Descourtilz's Flore des Antilles, 365. Fingerhuth's Tentamen Florulæ Lichenum Flora Danica, 472. Flora Medica, 52. Freycinet's Voyage Botanique, 57. Fries's Elenchus Fungorum, 60. Graffenauer's Traité sur le Camphre, 57. Hooker's Botanical Miscellany, noticed, 193. Humboldt and Bonpland's Voyage Botanique, 365. Johnston's Flora of Berwick upon Tweed, no- Jussieu's Famille des Euphorbiacées, 56. Labillardière's Sertum Austro.Caledonicum, 56. L. B. D., M.'s, Lettres à Madame de C***, sur Ledebour's Icones Plantarum Novarum, 366. Lindley's Introductory Lecture on Botany, no- Lindley's Synopsis of the British Flora, &c., Link and Otto's Icones Plantarum, &c., 365. Michaux's Flora Boreali-Americana, &c., 57. 57. 57. Smith's Natural History of many British Plants, Smith's Plants in South Kent, noticed, 240. Stevenson and Churchill's Medical Botany, 52. Sweet's Cistineæ, 52. Sweet's Geraniaceæ, 52. Trattinick's Pelargonien Deutschen Ursprunges, GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. Bertrand-Roux's Description Géognostique du Beudant's Traité de Mineralogie, 58. Beudant's Voyage Minéralogique en Hongrie, 58. Brongniart, Alex.: Introduction à la Minéralo- Brongniart, Alex.: Roches Homogènes et Hé- Brongniart, Alex.: Terrains du Vincentin, &c., Brongniart, Alex.: Terrains qui composent Brongniart and Desmarest's Crustacés Fossiles, Brongniart's Végétaux Fossiles, 365. Cuvier's Revolutions of the Surface of the D'Aubuisson's Traité de Géognosie, 57. Guenyveau's Principes de Métallurgie, 58. Humboldt's Essai Géognostique sur le Gisement Jäger's Fossilreptilien in Würtemberg, 60. Ordinaire's Hist. Natur. des Volcans, 58. Ure's New System of Geology, 53. |