256 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Jines Mr. Harris has adopted. There are many 

 original points of treatment, and the style is clear 

 and attractive. The illustrations are numerous, 

 many are quite new, and all are good. To a novice 

 in bee-keeping particularly, this book will l^e very 

 welcome ; and many whose experience leads them to 

 think they know all about the bee, will still be able 

 to pick up a few hints from Mr. Harris's attractively 

 got up little volume. 



A Season among Wild Flowers, by the Rev. Henry 

 Wood. (London : W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.) 

 An acceptable l:)Ook to put into the hands of a young 

 student of British botany. There is a very clearly 

 written description of the Linnean and natural 

 systems of classification, and a good account of all 

 the leading kinds of English flowers. The woodcuts 

 are for the most part excellent, and very numerous. 



The Wonders of Plant Life luider (he Microscope, 

 by Sophie Bledsoe Herrick. (London : W. H. Allen 

 & Co.) This is a volume of Studies in Plant Life 

 which has achieved such a success in America that 

 an English publisher has introduced it to British 

 readers. We think he has done rightly. It is 

 beautifully printed on good paper, and the illustrations 

 are almost novel for their artistic beauty. A very 

 large portion of the book is devoted to Cryptogamic 

 plants, especially microscopical kinds ; and there is 

 an extensive summary of all that has been written 

 concerning insectivorous plants. As might be ex- 

 pected, the illustrations deal almost entirely with 

 microscopic structures, so that they are all very 

 useful, both to the student and the general reader. 



The Blo7C'fipe in Chemistry, Mineralogy, and 

 Geology, by Col. W. A. Ross. (London : Crosby 

 Lockwood & Co.) The author makes out a capital 

 reason for using the Ijlowpipe in anhydrous analysis. 

 He shows both how to make one and how to use it, 

 and enters fully, and even enthusiastically, into all the 

 auxiliary details. Indeed, the book is in everyway 

 a good guide and manual, and will prove especially 

 helpful to young geologists and mineralogists, whom 

 (and especially the latter) the author appears to have 

 borne particularly in mind. Not the least valuable 

 chapter is the last, giving full details of analysis of 

 minerals by the Ijlowpipe, &c. 



Photography for Amateurs, by T. C. Ilepworth. 

 '{London: Cassell & Co.) A capital, easily under- 

 stood, and non-technical manual for all who either 

 <labble or work in the photographic art. The writer 

 is well skilled in the art of conveying to the minds 

 of the most uninitiated the facts he has himself well 

 mastered. 



Tlie Dynamo: How made and Ihnu used, by S. 

 R. Bottone (London : W. Swan Sonnenschein & 

 Co.) Although this is a book especially written for 

 amateurs, it will prove serviceable to students of 

 electricity generally. The chapters originally ap- 

 peared in the "English Mechanic," where they ex- 

 cited so much interest that we are pleased to see 



ihem republished in this cheap and attractive form. 

 To those who think of constructing small dynamos 

 it is the best book they could study. 



.-/ Dictionaiy of Miracles, by the Rev. Dr. Brewster. 

 (London: Chatto & Windus.) This is a curious 

 volume, full of attractive bits. It is a cheap and 

 unusually well bound book withal, giving nearly 

 600 pages for "js. 6d. It is so many-sided that its 

 abundance of strange stories touch the naturalist as 

 well as others, although the chief aim of the veteran 

 author (this is the 50th year of his authorship) is 

 to show a mode of thought which prevailed in 

 Christendom for many centuries, and which has not 

 yet died out. 



Diseases of Field and Garden Crops, by Worthington 

 G. Smith. (London: Macmillan& Co.) Few manuals 

 have been more required than the one before us. 

 Both to agriculturists and horticulturists the subject 

 is one of all-absorbing interest and importance, whilst 

 to workers with the microscope who have taken up 

 the subject of parasitic fungi this book will be scarcely 

 less welcome. The name of the author is a sufficient 

 guarantee both for accuracy and fulness. Perhaps 

 no other English author was so fit to deal with the 

 subject. Mr. Worthington Smith's descriptions are 

 remarkable for their lucidity. They are chiefly based 

 upon the reports of addresses delivered at the request 

 of the Institute of Agriculture at the British Museum, 

 South Kensington. The work is illustrated by 143 

 capital woodcuts, all drawn and engraved by the 

 author. A very copious index adds to the value of 

 the book, which is one we cordially recommend. 



Practical Taxidermy, by Montague Brown. (London: 

 L. Upcott Gill.) We are pleased to see that this 

 capital manual has already passed into a second 

 edition. The author has taken the opportunity to 

 revise and considerably enlarge it ; not the least 

 valuable part of the new matter are further instruc- 

 tions in modelling and artistic taxidermy. To 

 amateurs this book is peculiarly valuable. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



At the recent Annual Meeting of the American 

 Society of Microscopists, Mr. F. M. Hamlin read a 

 paper on an " Ideal slide," whose construction was 

 that the cell was sunk below the surface. Mr. Hamlin 

 is evidently not aware that Mr. B. Piffard, of llemel 

 Hempstead, has patented such a slide, which we 

 described some m<jnths ago. 



It is stated that the segmentation of ovum in 

 the monotremata is mejoblastic ; the "s" should 

 be " r " thus meroblastic as in birds, as distinguished 

 from holoblastic as in mammals, where the segmen- 

 tation involves the whole ovum. Mesoblast has of 

 course an entirely different signification and is not 

 applied to segmentation at all. — Geo. D. Bro7vn. 



