.^,. SOME NEW BOOKS. 789 



these, the first part, which is mainly Dr. Dendy's work, is a clear 

 and well-written account of the principal forms and their relations 

 to each other. 



In the second part, Mr. Lucas deals with the morphology of 

 flowering plants, and gives a description of a few of the more 

 important Australian Natural Orders. The five chapters in which 

 the root, stem, leaf, flower, and fruit are respectively considered, 

 form a capital little introduction to' structural and systematic botany ; 

 the matter is well connected, while nothing important has been over- 

 looked. In referring to twining plants, however, it is not correct to 

 say that the stem swings round its support "much in the same way 

 as a weight attached to a string held in the hand and swung round " ; 

 this view of the vital process of twining is too mechanical for modern 

 notions of physiology. A good classification of inflorescences and 

 fruits is given ; and the last chapter contains short descriptions of 

 twenty-three Natural Orders, grouped according to the plan adopted 

 by Baron von Mueller in his census of Australian plants. No 

 apetalous division is recognised, and Euphorbiaceae, Casuarinea;, and 

 Salsolaceae are found among the hypogynous polypetalse ; but recent 

 research has shown that the Casuarineae, at any rate, have no place 

 in this group. An appendix gives useful hints on collecting, observing, 

 preserving, and describing flowering plants. 



The book is illustrated with thirty-one plates, the figures in which 

 are sometimes original, sometimes borrowed from previous authors, 

 such as Sachs, Le Maout and Decaisne, and others. They are, on the 

 whole, clear and good, though occasionally sketchy. The text is well 

 produced, on good paper, and remarkably free from misprints. 



Castorologia : or the History and Traditions of the Canadian Beaver. By H. T. 

 Martin. 8vo. Pp. xi. and 238. London: E.Stanford. Montreal: Drysdale 

 and Co., 1892. Price los. 6d. 



What Mr. Hornaday has done for the American Bison, and Mr. 

 Barrow for the House Sparrow in America, Mr. Martin has accom- 

 plished for the Canadian Beaver in the present exhaustive memoir. 

 The value of such animal biographies can scarcely be overrated to 

 the working zoologist, and this value is much enhanced in the case of 

 creatures which, like the Canadian Beaver, are only too likely to share 

 the fate which has already overtaken the American Bison. 



That the Canadian Beaver is, indeed, a doomed animal, seems 

 only too apparent from the work before us, Mr. Martin stating in one 

 passage that its " days have been lengthened to the present, only by 

 contributions levied upon the musquash and thecoypu, whose numbers 

 have been heavily taxed " ; while later on he writes as follows : — "As 

 to the ultimate destruction of the beaver, no possible question can 

 arise, and the evidences of approaching extermination can be seen 

 only too plainly in the miles of territory exhibiting the decayed 

 stump, the broken dam, and deserted lodge. The passing bear or 

 wolverine tears open the lodge, partly in the vain hope of finding a 

 meal, partly from habit ; the rising waters float the logs away, while 

 the drifting ice in fall and spring gradually destroys the dam, till within 

 a decade, where once the busy colony spent their happy domestic 

 lives, no sign remains of all their wondrous toil." 



The author treats his subject- in a most thorough manner, com- 

 mencing with the mythology and legends relating to the beaver, next 

 passing on to the considerations of the larger fossil forms more or less 



