When some geologists tell us some sorts of coal may have been formed in times when there was little wind by the falling on the ground of the spores (the analogue of pollen in flowering plants) of cryptogamic plants, we naturally think of our small ferns, horse-tail and similar plants, and wonder as to how such things should be. But the plants were large, and probably the spores sized accordingly. The Gardeners' Chronicle aptly remarks :

" Representatives of the marsh vegetation of the ancient coal period would appear still to exist in South America; at least specimens of Equisetum giganteum from Brazil, which is said to have a stems of thirty feet, were exhibited by Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, at the Linnean meeting on June 15. A forest of these would certainly carry the mind back to the time when our now coal beds were luxuriantly flourishing in the marshes of the period."

Sub-Tropical Plants for Industrial Culture or Naturalization - by Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller, has been translated into the German language. It shows alike the interest of the German people in all that relates to industrial improvement, as well as their appreciation of the work of the distinguished Australian botanist.

The London Journal of Botany - announces that unless better supported it will step out at the end of another year. In contrast with this is the support given to the two American magazines, the Botanical Gazette and the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, which though a long way from being gold mines, add to the number of then-readers from year to year. With botanical taste growing continually, it is amazing to hear of poor support to botanical magazines. But the fact is that there is so much new in the " New Botany," that readers expect more than a mere chapter or two, in the old style. The advanced botanist in these days, can scarcely go to the fields or woods for an afternoon jaunt, or take up a dried specimen without seeing something new and worth telling, and this is what the modern subscriber expects to read about.