1900.] British Df'ago7iflies. 75 



to a place in the Irish list on De Selys Longchamps' testimony. One 

 species which Mr. King seems not to have seen in Ireland, but which is 

 recorded by the great Belgian entomologist from this country, we can 

 certify from personal observation to be rather widely distributed here — 

 the familiar Calopieryx virgo. We must protest against the inclusion of 

 the Channel Isles in Great Britain ; geographically they most un- 

 doubtedly belong to France. And it is to be regretted that, except in a 

 few cases, the foreign range of the species is not mentioned. Mr. Lucas 

 seems to ignore the "Lusitanian " element in our fauna, as he expresses 

 surprise that a south-western form like Oxygastra C//r/«zV should occur in 

 the British Island at all. To students of distribution it is of great interest 

 to find a Dragonfly belonging to the same faunistic group as Helix pisana 

 or Etirynehria complajiata. 



The volume concludes with useful practical chapters on breeding the 

 nymph, and preparing the imago for the collection. The illustrations 

 are all good, the coloured plates being exceptionally clear and well- 

 executed. We have no doubt that this excellent monograph will be 

 heartily welcomed by all entomologists, and that encouragement will 

 thereby be given to the study of an order of insects remarkable in the 

 interest of their structure, life-history, and habits. G. H. C. 



SIvIME FUNGI. 

 The Wlycctozoa. By the RT. Hon. Sir Edward Fry and Agnes Fry. 



Pp. i.-viii., 1-82, with twenty-two figures in the text. London : 



Knowledge Office, 1900. 

 This little book, costing only one shilling, forms an excellent intro- 

 duction to the study of a group of interesting organisms now generally 

 regarded as perhaps the lowest of the fungi. There is probably no 

 group of plants better supplied with illustrated guides to aid in its 

 investigation than this one of the slime fungi. Lister, Massee, and now, 

 in America, M'Bride, have prepared well-illustrated text-books, and to 

 these the book under consideration serves as a useful introduction. 

 Though elementary it yet contains nothing that must be unlearned 

 when the larger books are taken in hand. The illustrations are dis- 

 tinctly good, and add much to the educational value of the book. The 

 Mycetozoa have been almost entirely neglected by our Field Club 

 members, though full of interest from many points of view. Recorders 

 of additions to the Irish Flora have almost a clear field before them, and, 

 once made familiar with the use of the compound microscope, can become 

 their own instructors in this peculiar group. One member of the group 

 — Plasmodiophora brassicct, Wor.— is the cause of the well-known disease 

 in turnips, &c., called " finger and toe," " anbury," " club-root," &c., a 

 disease very prevalent in the West and other parts of Ireland. Other 

 plant-diseases have been attributed to other slime fungi, but the group 

 is chiefly of interest to the lover of natural history, and it is to be hoped 

 that Sir Edward Fry's easy and pleasant introduction will cause some 

 Reader of the Irish Naturalist to make a hobby of the Irish Mycetozoa. 



T.J. 



