192 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



while being reasonably popular loses none of its scientific value. 

 Much valuable work on this remarkable Order has been accomplished 

 during recent years, thanks to the labours of Sir William Turner, 

 Sir W. H. Flower, and others, and a general work on the group 

 had become a recognised want. This desideratum is well supplied 

 by Mr. Beddard's timely volume. 



The general scope of the work is indicated by the headings of 

 its various chapters, which are devoted to External Form, Internal 

 Structure, Comparison with other Aquatic Mammals, Position in 

 the System and Classification, Hunting Whales, Right Whales, 

 Rorquals, Toothed Whales, Beaked Whales, Dolphins, Anomalous 

 Dolphins, Zeuglodonts, and other Allies. 



The book is well printed and illustrated, and is extremely 

 reasonable in price. 



THE MYCETOZOA. By the Right Hon. Sir Edward Fry, D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., etc., and Agnes Fry. (London: "Knowledge" Office, 

 1899.) 



The authors of this little book are enthusiasts in the best sense, 

 writing with the desire to communicate to others some conception 

 of the great interest and importance of the questions suggested by 

 the study of the very curious beings that form the subjects of it. 

 The story of the Mycetozoa is admirably told, without attempting 

 to describe the species. Numerous questions of far-reaching im- 

 portance are suggested by the peculiar structure and modes of re- 

 production and of response to stimuli exhibited by Mycetozoa. 

 These questions are discussed in the manner that was to be looked 

 for from Sir E. Fry, though here and there slips occur, as on p. 35, 

 where it is stated that " all plants with a square stalk and lipped 

 flowers will be found to have a four-lobed ovary and four nuts on 

 the bottom of the calyx, and these belong to the family of the 

 Labiatae," and on p. 63, where the multinucleate Algse are said to 

 "agree in possessing no cell walls." The book is well illustrated, 

 and forms an excellent introduction to the study of a fascinating 

 group on the borderland of plants and animals. 



