1897] 



SOME NEW BOOKS 59 



treatment, in regard to its Cainozoic volcanic areas, than is accorded to 

 it in the present volume, which is far and away more generous than 

 any predecessor. While Ireland cannot at any point equal the crags 

 of Scuir na Gillean (p. 335), so finely set forth by Mr Abraham, yet 

 we should have liked some recognition of the strikingly scenic aspect 

 of the Mournes, one of the most ' self-contained ' and solitary moun- 

 tain-groups in the British Isles. One page deals with this district, 

 while as many as seven are devoted to the Limerick Basin, fourteen 

 to the toadstones of Derbyshire, and thirteen to St Kilda. To ask 

 for more, however, when we close these handsome volumes, is only a 

 well-merited compliment to their author. G. A. J. Cole. 



A Live Naturalist 



Round the Year : A Sekies of Short Nature Studies. By Professor L. C. Miall. 

 8vo, pp. viii. , 296. With illustrations chiefly by A. R. Hammond. London : 

 Macmillan & Co. 1896. Price, 5s. 



" Live Natural History ! " The phrase is our author's, and no better 

 example of it could be found than this book. It is, we may imagine, 

 just such a book as might have been written by Gilbert White had 

 he lived in these days, and had the benefit of a thorough scientific 

 training. Against the ' dry, marrowless, useless,' ' melancholy ' and 

 ' stodgy ' catalogue-type of natural history, the author raises a just 

 protest. There "is also a style of natural history writing that consists 

 largely of phrases without knowledge and imagination unallied to 

 observation. Professor Miall gives us the attempted literary charm of 

 the latter with the accuracy and wealth of knowledge of the former. 

 He takes us out into the fields and over the mountains, but does not 

 forget that there is a well-stocked library at home. It is indeed a 

 feature that we would fain see more of in so-called popular ' Natural 

 Histories ' — this constant reference to fuller accounts and original 

 authorities. So many writers treat their readers as sheer dyspeptics, 

 unable to digest aught beyond pap. 



As examples of the subjects so fascinatingly and suggestively 

 dealt with, we may mention : snow-flakes, birds in mid-winter, cat 

 and dog, the moon, spring crocuses, catkins, the oil-beetle, the botany 

 of a railway station, hay-time, cabbages and turnips, weeds, the love 

 of mountains, the reversed spiral, the structure of a feather, the 

 shortest day of the year. 



It is now July, and we find our author treating of duckweed. 

 How many of us know its flower ? Now is the time to see it. Let 

 the field naturalist take some duckweed from the water, and, with 

 Professor Miall, let him examine, describe, and draw it. The reasons 

 for its peculiar shape may then be guessed at, and the guesses checked 

 by experiments with models. Thus he is led to understand more 

 about the relations of this common water-plant to its environment, 

 and the ways in which it may spread from one pool to another. How 

 widespread it is he must learn from books, such as Hegelmaier's "Die 

 Lemnaceen." 



A word of praise is due to the illustrations, the fresh pen-and-ink 

 drawings by Mr Hammond being specially clear and artistic. 



