HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



271 



still take place in the case of the willow, but I main- 

 tain that entomophily is that method of cross-fertilisa- 

 tion on which the willow depends essentially, and 

 that it is a later, and probably a higher, stage of 

 development in the methods of cross-fertilisation. 



Otto V. Darbishire. 

 Balliol College, Oxford. 



A NEW FORM OF MOUNTING CLIP. 



THERE are, I suppose, few microscopists who 

 have not tried the use of various forms of spring 

 clips for mounting in Canada balsam, but there 

 are few microscopists who have not abandoned them 

 because they do more harm than good. The 

 pressure produced by the ordinary clips being far 

 from uniform, some mounters have invented spring- 

 clip boards or arrangements in which the pressure 

 is produced by weights. But all of these possess 

 this disadvantage, that delicate objects are ruined 

 by the pressure, while those that are more elastic 



Fig. 156. — Pressureless Mounting Clips. 



will lift the cover up as soon as the pressure is 

 removed, thereby admitting air. In order to keep 

 the cover in position while the balsam is "setting" 

 without producing pressure, I devised, early in 18S7, 

 the clips shown in the accompanying illustration 

 (Fig. 156), to which I give the name of " Pressure- 

 less Edge Clips." Their use will be obvious from 

 the figure. Two are required for each slide, and their 

 points are brought to bear against the edge, not on 

 the top of the cover, which is thus held fixed. They 

 are made of brass wire, of different sizes according to 

 the size of the cover ; the form marked a will be found 

 especially useful for thick objects. When applied to 

 newly-mounted balsam slides, a great deal of the 

 superfluous balsam may be scraped 'from round the 

 edges without shifting the cover, and the slide then 

 "baked" on a hot-water cistern or elsewhere for a 

 week or more, and there being no pressure there is 

 no danger of " springing " when the clips are removed. 

 I now find the clips invaluable, and several friends 

 have also adopted them. — G. H. Bryan, B.A. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



r OILERS IN THE SEA, by M. C. Cooke, 

 M.A., LL.D. (London: S.P.C.K). There 

 is no necessity to introduce Dr. Cooke to the readers 

 of our magazine. To him was due its foundation, 

 and the vigorous spurt it received in the days of 

 his editorship down to those of our own. Dr. 

 Cooke is well and widely known as a skilled 

 specialist and authority in his own immediate 

 departments of research. He is also one of the most 

 graceful and pleasant writers on popular science. 

 The above handsomely got-up volume is his latest 

 production in this direction. The Toilers in the Sea 

 (nothing to do with Victor Hugo) is a delightful 

 book, devoted to a popular, description of the 

 foraminifera, polycystina, sponges, zoophytes, corals, 

 sea-mats, tube-worms, and burrowing marine animals. 

 It is illustrated by a large number of excellent wood- 

 cuts, and four exquisitely-drawn plates of fora- 

 minifera, polycystina, sponge spicules, and gorgonia 

 spicules. 



Romance of Science Series. (London : 

 S.P.C.K.) Under this attractive title the 

 above energetic society are bringing out a 

 series of popular science books, each written 

 by a distinguished scientist. The first is 

 Time and Tide, a Romance of the Moon, by 

 Sir Robert S. Ball, the Astronomer Royal 

 for Ireland. It is in reality the publication 

 of the two lectures given by this well- 

 known popular lecturer in the London In- 

 stitution last winter. As its name imports, 

 it deals chiefly with the theory of tidal 

 evolution, but it goes much further afield, 

 and gives us a very delightful and in- 

 structive account of the satellite system 

 of other planets. It is altogether a very 

 delightful book : — 



Diseases of Plants, by H. Marshall Ward. This is 

 another little volume of the same series. Professor 

 Ward is doubtless the chief scientific forester in Great 

 Britain, as his admirable papers on the diseases of 

 timber which recently appeared in "Nature" amply 

 prove. He was therefore very sagaciously selected 

 to write the present little book, which deals entirely 

 with the fungoid diseases of serials, tubers, fruits, 

 hops and garden plants : — ■ 



The Story oj a Tinder Box, by C. M. Tidy. This 

 third issue of the above series, although not so bulky 

 as its predecessors, is of equal interest, and is made 

 up of the well-written notes which Professor Tidy 

 used in the course of lectures he delivered before a 

 juvenile audience at the London Institution during 

 the last Christmas Holidays. 'Tis a great pity, how- 

 ever, that the usefulness of this little book should be 

 diminished by the absence of an index and chapter 

 contents. 



The Zoo. (London : S.P.C.K.) This is the 



