1894- SOME NEW BOOKS. 69 



that Mr. Jameson has himself felt a want, and then done his best to 

 supply it for the benefit of others. The scope of the book is well 

 expressed in the title. It does not profess to take the place of such 

 works as Hobkirk's synopsis, but to meet the difficulty of the beginner, 

 who is often at a loss to know whereabouts in these books he is to look 

 for the description of his unknown and unnamed specimen. By the 

 aid of carefully elaborated keys he arrives first at the genus and then 

 at the species, and the specimens once identified, can be studied in 

 detail in the larger works. The keys hitherto published have been 

 founded almost entirely on fruit characters, which, as the author 

 observes, leave the student quite at a loss with regard to some of the 

 commonest and most easily distinguished mosses, which will probably 

 be among the first gathered, but are not likely to be in fruit. 

 By the present arrangement, however, most of the Pleurocarpous 

 mosses and many of the Acrocarpous may be readily determined even 

 in the barren state. These keys were originally published in the Journal 

 of Botany during the year 1891, but have been thoroughly revised and 

 in great part re-written for the present work. 



The first 20 pages of the guide are devoted to a short but useful 

 introduction. This, with the help of the illustrations, comprised 

 chiefly in Plates I.-VII., to the figures in which ample reference is 

 made, forms an excellent glossary, besides giving a good general idea 

 of the external structure of a moss. In section VII., on the practical 

 examination of specimens, the beginner will find all necessary instruc- 

 tions. Under each genus in the keys to the species, the author gives 

 some introductory remarks which, while not professing to be a generic 

 description, call attention to points characteristic of the British 

 species, and sometimes include information on synonymy or recent 

 additions to the British Moss Flora. 



The great features of the book are the 59 plates, which comprise, 

 in fact, two-thirds of the whole. Mr. Jameson is his own artist and 

 lithographer, and we heartily congratulate him on the result. 

 Drawings of the entire plant are rare, but those characters are given 

 which are especially useful in distinguishing the species, namely, the 

 form of the leaf, leaf-apex, leaf-cell, and often also of the fruit. 



We hope the Guide will meet with the appreciation it deserves, 

 and add stimulus to the study of a somewhat neglected but highly- 

 interesting division of our Flora. 



The Jurassic Rocks of Britain. Vol. iii. The Lias of England and Wales 

 (Yorkshire excepted). By H. B. Woodward, F.G.S. 8vo. Pp. xii., 299, 

 with map and woodcuts. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United 

 Kingdom. London : Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1893. 

 Price 7s. 6d. 



It is with irate feelings that we peruse this book ; not, we hasten 

 to add, on account of anything with which the author has connection. 

 Our anger is roused by the " get up " of the volume. Badly printed 

 with inferior type often set awry, on decidedly third-rate paper- 

 material so thin that the printing of one side of the page seriously 

 interferes with the other — the work is neither a credit to its printers 

 nor to the British Government. Placed on our desk by the side 

 of Government publications of other countries, it does much to lower 

 our national pride, and it sets us wondering why our Government 

 should take such pains to show how badly they can publish a 

 work. The book is embellished with woodcuts of sections, which the 



