19'^S. Notes. 267 



Mr. Edwardes displays an intimate knowledge of bee life. In one 

 point alone is he guilt}^ of a trifling inaccuracy. He says that in remov- 

 ing dead brood from the hive, bees always fly some distance away before 

 depositing it. This is not invariably the case. I have seen drone brood 

 scattered about on the grass just beneath the hive entrance, and have 

 noticed sparrows devouring it there. H^'s observation that a cast or 

 second swarm will leave a hive in any weather agrees with our own 

 experience. We have known one to leave on a dull afternoon just 

 previous to a very heav}- shower of rain. The book should provide 

 pleasant and interesting reading for all bee-lovers. 



G. O. vSherrard. 



The Story of the Sea and Seashore. By W. Pkrcivai, Westet^l, 

 F.L.S.. M.B.O.U. Pp 343 ; 128 illustrations and 8 coloured plates. 

 London : Robert Culley. Price, ^s. net. 



* 



We have everj- sympathy with the attempt to popularise natural 

 history at which Mr. Westell so perseveringly labours, but we are con- 

 strained to say that his treatment of " Sea and Seashore" subjects be- 

 trays no special qualification for the handling of that task, and the 

 merits of the book seem to consist almost entirely in the eight coloured 

 plates and 128 other illustrations with which it is furnished. If the 

 matter had been compressed into a volume of half the size, we believe 

 that it would have been quite as readable as well as equally instructive. 

 The different subjects, too, are very disproportionately treated. Sea- 

 weeds, for instance, are discussed in the same chapter — a short one of 

 twenty-four pages — with the seashore plants ; some half-dozen species 

 of each are figured, and a very few others briefly noticed. One is almost 

 tempted to think that the writing of this chapter at all may have been 

 an afterthought. Of the birds, fishes, marine mammals, crustaceans 

 and mollusca, the author has more to say, and it is possible that his 

 occasional efforts to be amusing may assist some of his readers in their 

 efforts to digest the instructive aud descriptive passages. But the 

 rapidity with which books conceived on this plan are now produced is 

 almost calculated to make one quake. 



C. B. M. 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



Notes on Irish Plants. 



Rev. P:. S. Marshall's paper, " Notes on ' the London Catalogue,' ed. 10," 

 which appears in the Journal of Botany for September and October, contains 

 some notes on Irish plants that ought not to be overlooked by the 

 worker. 



