1903 Field Clubs and Societies 351 



on account of the concise and pleasant way in which the usually dry 

 facts of Rotany are put before the reader. The authors' idea has been 

 to produce a " single work that shall fully deal with the requirements" of 

 all students preparing tor examinations in the subject for the London Uni- 

 versity and Board of Education ; and they have succeeded in producing 

 a book which cannot fail to be invaluable to every student of Rotany. 



The bulk of the work is given up to the description of certain 

 "types" of phanerogams and cryptogams, in which the morphology and 

 physiology of each type is carefully explained to the minutest detail. 

 There are several chapters on the Special Morphology and Classification 

 of Angiosperms, and two chapters devoted to Physiology are even more 

 absorbing than the foregoing chapters, with definite instructions for 

 some simple and necessary experiments in the functions of plant life. 



It is also very refreshing to see quite new illustrations, not the same 

 old diagrams, good as they are, which have confronted us for years in 

 Rotany class-books. Rut, considering the excellence of the letterpress, 

 the illustrations might have been very much better than they are. The 

 drawings of sections are very good, but some of the other illustrations 

 are not worthy of the rest of the book. To take one example, perhaps 

 the most defective, the representation of a whole plant of Pellia (on 

 p. 230) is poor, and gives one the impression that a starved, miser- 

 able specimen was drawn from, if indeed it was drawn from nature at 

 all. We quite expect to hear of this class-book being received with 

 gratitude by teachers especially, and recommended to all students of 

 Rotany, who ought to spend delightful hours in its perusal. 



Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce a new book by Wm. T. Long, entitled 

 A Little Brother to the Bear, which is illustrated by Charles Copeland. 

 The little brother is the " coon." Messrs. Cassell have just issued Wild 

 Nature's Ways, by R. Kearton. Roth of these books are admirably 

 adapted for gift-books at Christmas. 



Field Clubs and Societies. 



At the usual monthly meeting of the Vale of Derwent Naturalists' 

 Field Club, held on 6th November, a paper was read on " The Value and 

 Use of a Study of Nature," by the president, Mr. II. F. Bulman. It was 

 pointed out at the beginning that the chief object of the club was to 

 encourage the study of natural history in the field and first hand, and 

 not merely from books. The pursuit of nature in this way was health- 

 giving, and tended to that most desirable ideal, "a sound mind in a 

 sound body" by taking its votaries into the fresh air of the country, 

 and thus giving not only exercise for the body, but training for some of 

 the most valuable faculties of the mind, such as observation and re- 

 flection. To the child of nature with a seeing eye and an understand- 

 ing mind, every bank and hedgerow, every pond and stream, every tree 

 and flower, every mine and exposed cliff, was full of wonder and interest. 



