REVIEWS 705 



identify them. Some of the plates of insects, etc., are excellent, others are some- 

 what crude, but all are sufficient to allow of the identification of the animal. 



This work must prove to be of great service in India, and we hope will be 

 a stepping-stone to a larger and revised edition. In the meanwhile it fills a great 

 gap, and the author is to be congratulated on its production. 



Fred. V. Theobald. 



Gli Insetti. By Professor Antonio Berlese. (Milan : Societl Editrice 

 Libraria, Via Kramer, 4A Gall. De Cristoforis, 54-55.) The price for the 

 parts so far issued is 27 lira. 



We wish to call attention to this great work, started in 1906. At present the first 

 volume has reached Chapter XXX. 



It is certainly the greatest work yet produced on insects. The various 

 chapters deal with the external and internal structure of all groups of insects. The 

 last fasciculi, Nos. 28-30, terminate at page 896, and there are 1,197 figures, some 

 of which are coloured. Copious bibliographies are given at the end of each 

 chapter. No student of entomology should be without this monumental work 

 in his library. 



We withhold a full notice of this work until the first volume is complete. 



Fred V. Theobald. 



The Fundamental Conceptions of Chemistry. By Professor Jorgensen. 

 Translated by M. P. Appleby. [Pp. viii. 4- 175.] (London : The Society 

 for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 2s. 6d.) 



This celebrated little book makes a welcome first appearance in the English 

 language, and apparently has lost nothing in the process of translation. In no 

 way is it to be regarded merely as an elementary text-book of chemistry, but 

 rather as an attempt to correlate the fundamental chemical theories in a manner 

 suitable to the beginner. In this Professor Jorgensen succeeds admirably, the 

 underlying theories of chemical action being explained with clearness, and 

 illustrated by a number of simple experiments, most of which can be carried out 

 with very simple apparatus. The book also makes good reading for the more 

 advanced student and the teacher. 



S. J. M. Auld. 



On the Plantation, Cultivating, and Curing of Para Indian Rubber. By 



H. A. Wickham. [Pp. 78.] (Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. Ltd. 

 3-y. td. net.) 



One of the most noteworthy events in tropical agriculture during recent years has 

 been the attention devoted to the rubber trees, and particularly, so far as the 

 British Possessions are concerned, to the Para rubber tree {Hcvea brasiliensis). 

 To within the last few years the whole of the world's supply of rubber was obtained 

 from wild plants growing in the great forest regions of equatorial America, and to 

 a less degree in those of Africa and Asia. The mode of collection was exceedingly 

 wasteful and destructive, and about thirty years ago fears began to be entertained 

 lest the natural supplies should become exhausted. At this juncture, owing to the 

 initiative of Sir Joseph Hooker, then Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 

 Mr. H. A. Wickham was commissioned, on behalf of the Government of India, to 

 obtain supplies of the Para rubber tree, the chief rubber-producing plant in the 

 Amazon valley, which then, as now, was the principal source of the world's supplies. 



