1902 The Field Naturalist's Library 149 



book more to their taste. The opening chapter on the Scope of Biology 

 is excellent, and is followed by a discussion of the Characters of the Great 

 Divisions of the Animal Kingdom. It is the latter part of the book 

 which particularly appeals to field workers, and chapter xxi. on the Life- 

 History of the Cockroach and the Butterfly, and their chief Structural 

 Differences, should be read by all who would have a clear description of 

 these. This chapter also ends with a table showing the differences 

 discussed. We quote the following paragraph from p. 349 : "Thus in 

 the life cycle of the butterfly three distinct stages are passed through, 

 but each is intimately related to the other : there is the active larval 

 stage, during which the organism is feeding and storing up a reserve of 

 potential energy ; there is the apparently quiescent, in reality active, 

 pupal stage, during which no feeding takes place, and the potential 

 energy stored up in the previous stage is utilised in the formation of the 

 imago ; the imaginal stage is that of the perfect insect, which often only 

 lasts a few days, a single day, or a few hours, and the chief, and in most 

 cases the sole, event of which is the fertilisation and deposition of the 

 eggs. The deposited eggs remain dormant during the winter, and 

 develop into the larva in the following spring, and this will become the 

 pupa, whence the imago will subsequently arise." 



From this chapter the field naturalist will turn to the last two in the 

 book, which deal with Heredity and Variation respectively. Under 

 Heredity Mr Mudge discusses the experiments of Professor Cossar 

 Ewart on horses, which show that the doctrine of Telegony is un- 

 supported by experimental evidence. Our readers will remember that 

 Professor Cossar Ewart dealt with his experiments on dogs in our last 

 issue, and showed that his previous conclusions were only strengthened 

 by these. We recommend Mr Mudge's book to the careful study of 

 those field naturalists who wish to look a little below the surface in their 

 zoological work. 



In the February issue of the ' Naturalist ' Mr S. Lister Petty has a 

 paper on "Some Plants of Silverdale," West Lancashire, which gives a 

 long botanical list for a little- worked district. The new species are 

 Salvia verbenaca, Centaurea cyanus, which is an extension of range, 

 Epipactus atro-riibens, and Ceterach, a rediscovery in the district. The 

 formation of the locality is limestone. 



An Annotated Catalogue of Edible British Fungi. By E. 

 W. Swanton. With six hand - coloured plates (comprising 52 

 figures) by E. W. Swanton and Miss Mosley. Pp. 43. Hudders- 

 field : Charles Mosley. Price 2s. 6d. 

 This catalogue brings together in a succinct form an enumeration of 

 the edible fungi contained in the two large orders of the Hymenomycetes 

 and Discomycetes. It is of convenient size, and should therefore be of 

 considerable assistance to the field worker, and its price places it within 

 the reach of all. Mr Swanton seems to have sampled a very large num- 

 ber of our large edible fungi, and that he has survived the ordeal must be 

 due to a remarkable constitution. Take two examples only. Fames 



