i893. SOME NEW BOOKS. 69 



quoted from the Lias; now 319 species are enumerated. Altogether, 

 the authors of the present Catalogue record 1,015 species, and they 

 have reduced the lists by something like 150 names of doubtfully 

 identified foreign or imperfectly-constituted British species. 



This new volume is the second contribution to Catalogues of 

 British Fossils, Messrs. Woodward and Sherborn's Vertebrata 

 appearing in 1890. We constantly use the old classic now, and 

 considering the vast amount of work that has been done in the past 

 forty years, it will readily be understood how useful must be a recent 

 book of a similar kind that fully arranges our present knowledge. It 

 is gratifying to find that the labour has so far been undertaken by 

 those specially qualified to do it. 



We should like, however, to make some remarks on a few points 

 which might, in our opinion, have been more carefully studied. In 

 the first place, the authors do not distinguish between James Sowerby 

 and James de Carle Sowerby, a careless practice of some English 

 palaeontologists which has several times been pointed out to us by 

 continental workers. Secondly, there is a great inconsistency in 

 giving dates ; sometimes a separate work is quoted with and some- 

 times without date, and the same may be said of serials. Considering 

 the authors do not attempt exact dating in their bibliography, the 

 reader is left hopelessly in the lurch, and has after all to seek his 

 reference for himself in some public library. 



We are glad to see that when quoting pre-Linnean genera, the 

 first Linnean authority is also given, though from the method of 

 quotation one is almost led to believe that the pre-Linnean author's 

 name is accepted. The entry Cerithinm, for instance, would be more 

 accurately expressed thus : Cerithinm, Bruguiere, 1792 {ex Adanson, 

 1757)- It is also gratifying to note that the loth and not the 12th 

 edition of Linnaeus' " Systema " is used. 



With regard to the generic determination of some of the moUusca, 

 we think that a more detailed study of recent forms and recent con- 

 tinental work upon them would have enabled the authors to more 

 exactly arrange the various Cerithiform, Naticiform, and Trochiform 

 groups; and although the authors have some remarks (pp. 18 — 23) on 

 several genera, we are loth to believe that all the " species " quoted 

 under Cevitkium, Chemnitzia, Natica, Tvochus and Turbo properly belong 

 to these genera. We are especially dubious as regards the first, 

 third, and fourth genus, in which the characteristic features can only 

 be seen in perfectly-preserved or completely disentombed specimens. 



Tlie sundry new names used in the volume might have been 

 listed on p. xxxiv., now a blank ; as it is we are told to "find six 

 faces " in the style of the puzzle-pictures. 



The general get-up is good, but the paper is too thick and 

 clumsy, and the book takes up one inch, instead of half-an-inch, of 

 already seriously overcrowded shelves. 



Fossil Plants as Tests of Climate. By A. C. Seward, M.A., F.G.S. 

 [Sedgwick Prize Essay for 1892.] Pp. 151. London: C. J. Clay & Sons, 

 1892. Price 5$. 



This Sedgwick Prize Essay is a useful compilation, the author 

 having brought together all the botanical evidence of former climatic 

 conditions. Most of the opinions quoted are, however, extremely 

 speculative, and of little value, and, wisely, Mr. Seward seldom 

 ventures an opinion of his own on so difficult a subject as bygone 

 climatic changes. 



