344 The Irish Naturalist, November, 



Linnaeus. Though few readers of the Irish Naturalist are likely to have 

 an opportunity of inspecting the collection in the Department of Botany 

 in the Natural History Museum in London, we would advise all to invest 

 3^. in this Guide for the sake of the two fine portraits of Linnaeus, 

 selected from a series got together by Dr. W. Carruthers, ex-keeper of 

 Botany. In each portrait the alpine Limnca borealis is conspicuous. 



T.J. 



Precis des Caracteres Ceneriqucs des Insectes, disposes 

 dansunordre naturel. Par le Citoyen Latreieee. Pp.208. Breve: 

 F. Bourdeaux. An 5 de la R. [1797]. (Reprint of 200 copies. 

 A. Hermann, Paris, 1907. Price 7 fr.). 



Naturalists of to-day owe a debt of gratitude to publishers like M. 

 Hermann who present us thus with the old classics of systematic zoology 

 in the garb that clothed them when they first appeared. The date on 

 the title-page of this scarce memoir of P. A. Latreille reminds us that he 

 and several of his notable compatriots worked at their beloved sciences 

 amid the turmoils of the Revolution and the massacres of the Terror. 

 Perhaps there was some compensation for an environment so unsuitable 

 to biological study in that he could deal with all the genera of Insects — 

 " Animaux sans vertebres, dont le corps et les pattes sont des plusieurs 

 pieces " — all the Arthropoda therefore of modern zoologists in 200 octavo 

 pages of large type ! 



G. H. C. 



MORE NATURE PICTURES. 



Pictures from Nature's Garden : Stories from Life in Wood and 

 Field. By H. W. Shepheard-Waewyn, M. A., F Z.S., F.E.S. With 78 

 Photographic Illustrations from Nature by the Author. London : 

 John Long, 1907. Price 6s. 



Mr. Shepheard-Walwyn is well known as an enthusiastic entomologist 

 and a skilled photographer, and in his latest volume he presents us, as 

 usual, with a number of charming photographic illustrations of insect 

 life, while the stories which compose the letterpress are all flavoured — 

 some of them strongly and others very faintly— with natural history of 

 not too advanced a kind. So much of the volume is occupied with clever 

 children's chatter— of which we are assured that all the more remarkable 

 utterances have been actually spoken in the author's presence — and with 

 sketches of some amusing human oddities, distinguished by their friend- 

 liness or unfriendliness to the author's animal favourites, that it would 

 be scarcely within the province of a reviewer for a natural history 

 journal to attempt to give a general idea of the book's merits. But we 

 venture to say that the reading of it will give pleasure to many naturalists 

 and nature lovers, and may possibly convert some of those who have 

 hitherto been insensible of the charms of field study into genuine 

 votaries. We hope, at any rate, that no one will be deterred from em- 

 bracing entomology as a pursuit by the author's rather alarming account 



