HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



131 



•ence notwithstanding. Dr. Cooke's two volumes on 

 the subject fetch high prices, which is a good indica- 

 tion of their rarity, and of the necessity for a book 

 like the present to be published. The woodcut 

 illustrations are neat, artistic, and accurate, as one 

 would naturally expect, seeing that they are all the 

 work of Mr. Worthington G. Smith. Mr. Stevenson 

 has laid all possible authors under tribute, and he 

 shows himself admirably capable of acting as a 

 mycological guide to the British fungi. This volume 

 will be an acceptable addition to every botanical 

 library. 



Our Island Continent : a Naturalises Holiday in 

 Australia, by Dr. J. E. Taylor, F.L.S. etc. (London : 

 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge). Our 

 position with regard to this little book precludes our 

 doing more than announcing its publication. The 

 chapters are as follows : I, Outward Bound ; 2, The 

 Indian Ocean ; 3, First Glimpses of Australia ; 

 4, South Australia : Adelaide ; 5, The Environs of 

 Adelaide ; 6, In the Bush ; 7, Victoria : Melbourne ; 

 •8, The Environs of Melbourne ; 9, Victorian Wan- 

 derings and Ramblings ; 10, Australia Felix; 11, 

 A Visit to the Crater Lakes of Western Victoria ; 

 12, The Victorian Forests ; 13, Cobb's Coaches : on 

 the Road; 14, Overland; 15, New South Wales: 

 Sydney ; 16, The Environs of Sydney ; and 17, The 

 Blue Mountains. 



The Naturalist's Diary : a Day Book of Meteo- 

 rology, Phenology and Rural Biology, by Charles 

 Roberts, F.R.C.S. (London : Swan Sonnenschein 

 & Co.). This book admirably carries out a capital 

 idea. It is practically a ready work of reference to 

 the climate and general natural history of the 

 British Islands. The introduction covers very ex- 

 tensive ground, including health resorts, climates, 

 periodicity of natural phenomena, migration of birds, 

 -etc. Each day of the year has a column assigned to it, 

 showing the average or mean temperature, maximum 

 and minimum, in sun and shade, mean barometer, 

 rainfall, the plants and trees usually blossoming, 

 what plants to look out for, the trees and shrubs 

 leafing, insects, larvre, etc. appearing ; birds mi- 

 grating to and from, singing etc. ; what animals are 

 seen, shooting, fishing, sports, etc. From all of 

 which the reader will see that this is a most useful 

 and handy book of reference. 



Mind-Cure on a Pliysical Basis, by Sarah E. 

 Titcomb (Boston : Cuppler, Upham & . Co.). We 

 confess we do not like meddling with these subjects, 

 but we were attracted by the earnestness of the 

 author to read sufficient of this book to see that it 

 differs much from all previous works on the subject. 

 The author holds that she can cure disease simply by 

 concentrating her mind upon the thought that the 

 patient has no disease, and she thinks this method 

 can be used by anybody. We have not had time to 

 try it. 



The Young Collector: "Sea-weeds, Shells, and 



Fossils," by Peter Gray and B. B. Woodward ; and 

 " English Coins and Tokens," by St. Jewill and B. V. 

 Head (both by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.). 

 Although neither of these handbooks comes up to 

 the unusally high character of Mr. Bagnall's work 

 on Mosses, they are nevertheless admirable helps 

 to young students, to whom their cheap price (one 

 shilling) will be very welcome. 



An Intermediate Pliysical and Descriptive Geography 

 (London : Ed. Stanford). This little book is intended 

 for school use, and is abridged from the well-known 

 and larger " Physical, Historical, and Descriptive 

 Geography " of the late Mr. Keith Johnston. We 

 have long held the latter work to be the most 

 admirable scientific treatise that ever appeared, and 

 we are glad that this smaller work, containing the 

 method which made Mr. Johnston's work valuable, is 

 based on the same lines. 



Official Year-Book of the Scientific and learned 

 Societies of Great Britain and Ireland (London : 

 Chas. Griffin & Co.). This is the third annual issue 

 of a valuable and handy book of references. It 

 gives a list of the papers read during 1S85 before 

 societies engaged in fourteen departments of research, 

 with the names of their authors ; and there is besides 

 a full and copious index. It also contains notices of 

 the various Government departments of science, such 

 as the Royal Observatory, Geological Survey, etc. 



Malvern : its Flowers, Ferns, Butte/fies, Minerals, 

 Fossils, and Birds, by C. E. Mackie, M.A. (Malvern : 

 "Advertiser" Office). This is a neat, well-printed, 

 and altogether nicely got up little field handbook, 

 absolutely necessary to a naturalist visiting the 

 Malverns. In view of the next meeting of the British 

 Association at Birmingham, when, among the nu- 

 merous excursions, one or more is sure to be made to 

 this interesting district, the issue of this little manual 

 is very opportune. 



Photog7-aphy for Amateurs, by T. C. Hepworth, 

 F.C.S. (London : Cassell & Co.). Mr. Hepworth 

 is never more at his best than when he is retailing his 

 large experience for the use of beginners in the 

 sciences he has studied. There are few pursuits more 

 generally popular than that of photography ; and, 

 although there are several capital little books known 

 to amateurs, we do not know of any so cheap or 

 practically useful as the one before us. We specially 

 recommend it to ladies who have now added amateur 

 photography to their numerous accomplishments. 



Another old contributor to our magazine — a man 

 whom Dr. Samuel Smiles made known to the public 

 some years ago, Mr. Thomas Edward, of Banff — has 

 just died at the age of seventy-two. Edward was a 

 thorough, open-air naturalist, one to whom science' 

 was dearer than gold or comfort, or even fame. He 

 lived a happy, useful, and honoured life, although he 

 never earned a pound a week. 



