226 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



/NTRODUCTION TO FRESHWATER 

 ALG^E, by M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D. 

 (London : Kegan Paul & Co.). This is one of the 

 well-known red volumes of the International Scientific 

 Series. A good work on British Freshwater Algse 

 has long been required, and no man was better 

 capable of preparing it than Dr. Cooke. The 

 price {Ss.) brings it within the reach of every student 

 of practical botany. Dr. Cooke is one of the most 

 lucid of our scientific expositors. The reader follows 

 his clear statement of facts without the slightest 

 difficulty, and all earnest students will feel a debt of 

 gratitude to the author for this admirable work. 

 The chapters are as follows: — Introduction, Collec- 

 tion and Preservation, Cell-Increase, Polymorphism, 

 Asexual Reproduction, Sexual Reproduction, Con- 

 jugation, Pairing of Zoospores, Alternation of 

 Generations, Spore Germination, Spontaneous 

 Movements, Notable Phenomena, The Dual 

 Hypothesis, Classification. Nearly half the book is 

 occupied by the most useful arrangement and 

 enumeration of the British species. The thirteen 

 plates illustrate all the genera, and the figures, one 

 hundred and eighteen in number, are clearly and 

 exquisitely drawn. This is a book which needs no 

 recommendation ; it brings its own recommendation 

 with it. We may add that there is appended a very 

 full and useful glossary of terms. 



Zoological Types and Classification, by W. E. 

 Fothergill, M.A., B.Sc. (Edinburgh: James Thin). 

 This will prove a very useful work of reference for 

 zoological teachers and students, inasmuch as it gives 

 a summary of all the important classes of the animal 

 kingdom, together with the general anatomy of a 

 large number of types. To students attending 

 lectures on these subjects it will prove exceedingly 

 useful. 



The Diseases of Crops and Their Remedies, by A. B. 

 Griffiths, Ph.D., &c. (London : Geo. Bell & Sons). 

 Young farmers, market gardeners, and agricultural 

 students generally, will find this little book of much 

 value. The day is fast approaching when the new 

 school of agriculture will be obliged to make certain 

 departments of zoology and botany a practical study. 

 It is estimated that at least one-sixth of the crops and 

 vegetables we grow is sacrificed through the ravages 

 of insect pests and parasitic fungi, of which the 

 majority of cultivators know little or nothing. Dr. 

 Griffiths in this manual discourses in five chapters 

 upon the diseases of leguminous crops, the parasites 

 of beans, clover, lucern, peas, trefoil, vetches, etc. ; 

 the diseases of root-crops and the various parasites 

 of beet-root, carrots, turnips, mangel, onions, 

 parsnips, potatoes, etc. ; also the diseases of 

 gramineous crops or cereals, and the several parasites 

 of wheat, barley, oats, rye, grasses, rice, etc. There 

 is also one chapter devoted to the diseases of 



miscellaneous crops, such as hops, cabbages, celery, 

 lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, asparagus, etc. 

 There is a useful little concluding chapter on the 

 microscope, and an exceedingly good index. 



Handbook for Lincobishire, with map and plans 

 (London : John Murray). This is an age of guide- 

 books, but Murray's Handbooks hold their heads 

 high above them all on account of the extensive 

 learning imported into them, and the general 

 precision and accuracy of their information. They 

 are not only guide books to the topography of a 

 district, but manuals of the archeology, geology, 

 botany, and local history. The present volume has 

 been brought up to the most recent date, insomuch 

 that it may be almost regarded as an original work. 

 The fact that Lincolnshire has no trustworthy county 

 history renders the present volume all the more 

 valuable. 



Wild Nature won by Kindness, by Mrs. Brightwen 

 (London : Fisher Unwin). This is a book very 

 delightful to read, prettily illustrated by the author 

 and Mr. F. C. Gould, and nicely printed and got up. 

 It is a little work of the old-fashioned natural history 

 kind which we are glad to see is coming into favour 

 again, as it tends to promote observers and increase 

 the number of the lovers of nature. In this book 

 we have twenty-nine short chapters, all of them 

 pleasantly written, and many of them containing 

 valuable hints as to the feeding of pets. 



Sap : Does it Rise from the Roots ? by J. A. Reeves 

 (London : Geo. Kenning). Mr. Reeves is strongly 

 of opinion that the commonly received doctrine that 

 sap rises from the roots has no evidence whatever to 

 support it, and that instead of water ascending and 

 gases descending, the facts he adduces in this little 

 volume prove that water descends into the roots and 

 that gases ascend to the leaves. His chief theoretical 

 reasons for this being the case is, that it is in strict 

 conformity with the laws of gravitation. But Mr. 

 Reeves is intelligent enough to know that gravitation 

 does not get all its own way amongst organic beings, 

 otherwise we ought logically to take in the air we 

 breathe from our toes, which would also account for 

 the general gassiness of many people's heads. We are 

 afraid that Mr. Reeves will not convert many 

 botanists, but the latter would do well to read the 

 many original experiments the author sets forth in 

 his books, and which are of high interest. The 

 author explains his own views very clearly. 



Principia ; or the Three Octaves of Creation : A 

 nnv Eirenihon, by the Rev. A. Kennion, M.A. 

 (London : Elliot Stock). This is a book crowded 

 with learning of a certain kind, but which comes 

 upon us as the vision of a great conundrum. It bears 

 evidence of large and extensive reading, and is 

 evidently devoted to a geological harmonisation of 

 the six days of creation. The author's main purpose, 

 as we judge from the chart, is that the " Three 

 Octaves of Creation" are represented by the " Word, 



