io4 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Chatto and "Windus.) We have no fault to find with 

 this book except its title, which conveys no idea of the 

 rich treat all lovers of natural history will find in it. 

 It is made up of 39 chapters or essays, originally 

 contributed to newspapers, but which we are glad to 

 see reproduced in their present form. Perhaps no 

 living scientific writer possesses the scientific imagi- 

 nation so fervently as Mr. Grant Allen. Everything 

 he discusses receives some original side-lights. No- 

 body has so largely availed himself of the fruitful 

 suggestions of the doctrine of evolution as he : and 

 no other writer has shown how important that doctrine 

 is to explain matters otherwise unexplainable. 



Ants and their Ways, by the Rev. W. F. White. 

 (London : The Religious Tract Society.) This work 

 is also a reprint of papers which have appeared else- 

 where, and is largely a very cleverly condensed ac- 

 count of the recent discoveries of Lubbock, McCook, 

 and others. It is very well written, and altogether 

 a great improvement on the kind of books issued as 

 gift-books by this society. 



The Amateur's Aviary of Foreign Birds, by W. T. 

 Greene, M.D. (London : L. Upcott Gill.) We have 

 frequently been asked to recommend a book like this 

 before us, and we shall for the future recommend Dr. 

 Greene's. As all our readers are aware who have 

 read the author's communications in the columns of 

 Science-Gossip, Dr. Greene is an ardent ornitholo- 

 gist, and well skilled in the habits of caged foreign 

 birds particularly. All the different kinds of 

 beautiful foreign birds are here figured and described; 

 their food, ailments, &c. are particularised ; their 

 breeding habits, habitations, &c. all detailed, so 

 that no aviarist can get wrong. The illustrations are 

 of a very excellent kind. We regret this useful little 

 book was not provided with an index. 



Micro-Photography, by A. C. Malley, B.A., M.B., 

 &c. (London : H. K. Lewis.) We have here a very 

 useful and much wanted little manual. The author 

 has written it in order to encourage the practice of 

 micro-photography. It deals with the properties of 

 lenses, &c, microscopic illumination, mounting, 

 section cutting, staining, and also gives a description 

 of the wet collodion and gelatino-bromide processes. 

 Not the least valuable portion is that devoted to the 

 best methods for preparing microscopic objects for 

 micro-photographing. There is a plate of actual 

 micro-photographs facing the title-page to show 

 what can be done, the objects selected being a section 

 of the lung containing Bacillus anthracis X 420 

 diam., Surirella gemma and 6". Spencerii X 1000 

 diam., central portion of Aulacodiscus Kittonii x 

 1500 diam., and scales of P. Argus butterfly X 

 320 diam. 



Physics in Pictures, with explanatory text, prepared 

 by Theodore Eckardt, translated by A. H. Keane. 

 (London : Ed. Stanford.) This is a reproduction of 

 certain German books intended for ocular instruction 

 in schools and families. The coloured pictures are 



both attractive and effective, and the scientific prin- 

 ciples they are intended to convey at once to the 

 brain by means of the eye are very patent. They 

 are admirably fitted for the purpose they are in- 

 tended for. 



The Life and work of Charles £>anvin, by Prof. 

 Louis Miall. (Leeds : Richard Jackson.) Prof. Miall 

 has republished his lecture, delivered to the Leeds 

 Philosophical and Literary Society last February, 

 under the above title. It is an admirable summary 

 of the life of a truly great man, written in strong 

 sympathy for the noble spirit which has so recently 

 passed away from our midst. 



THE DANISH FOREST. 



By John Wager. 



IV. — The Distribution of the Wild- 

 growing Trees. 



{Continued from page 88.] 



C^COTCH Fir. — Pine-trees, the chief constituents 

 w_J of the forests of neighbouring lands, have now in 

 Denmark only a nurtured life. The Scotch fir, once 

 a native tree, widely extended over many districts, 

 has disappeared as a wild growth, and the conditions 

 of the soil have become so unfavourable to it that its 

 extension in the forests by natural sowing is impeded 

 by many difficulties. On peat-mosses, however, 

 Scotch firs which have descended from plantations 

 may sometimes be found. 



The Yew (Taxus baccata) does not pertain to the 

 Danish flora, yet, being indigenous in all neighbouring 

 lands — Norway, Sweden, Germany, and England — 

 we are led to the conclusion that it must once have 

 grown in Denmark also ; especially as it has dis- 

 appeared from many parts of Germany where it 

 formerly grew. 



"Juniper (yu?iiperus communis) has great extension 

 over hilly forest tracts, where the ground is sandy, 

 and is therefore most common in Jutland. It is 

 common also in the wooded districts of Bomholm, 

 and on the chalk cliffs of Moen ; while in many 

 districts, even where the soil appears favourable to 

 its growth, it is either altogether absent, or very 

 rare. 



Brambles, wild Poses, and the /Polly, are not very 

 arboreal species, but deserve mention, because by 

 their abundance they contribute greatly to the char- 

 acter of some of the woods. 



The bramble group may be met with in all Danish 

 woods, but it appears, in numerous varieties, with 

 the greatest profusion on the south-eastern coast of 

 Jutland. There it covers all openings in the woods, 

 penetrates among scrub and underwood, fills hedges 

 and ditches with its bow-formed thorny sprays, and 

 by preventing young trees from springing up on 

 spaces cleared by the axe or the wind, renders it 



