1909. Reviews. icg 



any value, while, miicli of what there is, can scarcely be termed relevant 

 to the subject matter of the work. 



The main body of the book is arranged on a botanical basis, each 

 Natural Order being dealt with in turn. In the first part the Ranuncu- 

 lacease, Maguoliaceae, and Calj'canthacese are dealt with, and the 

 arboreal and shrubby species in each described, and in most cases 

 figured. Here, again, the authors appear to have confined themselves 

 to a number of brief statements on the habitual requirements, botanical 

 characteristics, and derivation of nomenclatiire of the species under 

 review, but have omitted a good general description of each genus, which, 

 would be likely to interest the amateur or professional culturist to an 

 equal or greater degree than botanical phraseology, important though 

 the latter may be in itself. 



The work is well printed, and the illustrations are clear and well 

 drawn, and the book will doubtless be of considerable value to the 

 student of trees and shrubs from a botanical stand-point, and may assist 

 the practical gardener or amateur iu identifying species. 



A. C. F. 



A STUDY OF " WHITE ANTS." 



Die Termiten odcr wcissen Amciscn : eine biologische Studie, 

 Von K. ESCHERICH. Leipzig, Dr. W. Klinkhardt, 1909. (Pp. xii. + 

 198. Coloured frontispiece and 51 figures. Price 6s.) 



The insect-fauna of Ireland, like that of Great Britain, has no example 

 of that most interesting tropical group of lowly-organized insects, the 

 Termites (commonly misnamed " white ants"), which are represented 

 by several species in the Mediterranean district. Termites exhibit an 

 elaboration of social life comparable to that of the highly- organized 

 Hymenoptera— ants, -wasps and bees, and a knowledge of their habits is 

 of great interest to all naturalists. 



Dr. Escherich, the author of the work, is well known to zoologists 

 through his valuable morphological researches on several of the lovvcr 

 groups of insects. His present book shows — like his earlier volume on 

 the true ants— that he is deeply interested in insect bionomics, and he 

 has added to an exhaustive and critical survey of the literature on 

 Termite societies, nests, and habits, observations of his own made on a 

 journey in East Africa. No account of the structure of the insects is 

 given in this book ; in a brief paragraph in the introduction, the authoi 

 mentions the various systematic associations in which the Termitidas 

 have been placed, and accepts the suggestion of those writers who, like 

 Handhrsch, regard the family as forming a distinct order. Handlirsch's 

 scheme of insect classification carries so-called ordinal divisions to the 

 most extreme limits ; the curious Embiidae, resembling the Termitidae 

 in structure and to some extent in mode of life, might well be allowed 

 also inclusion in the order Isoptera. At the end of the book there is a 

 useful synopsis of the sub-families and genera, but the geographical 

 distribution of the latter is imperfectly given. 



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