137 



NOTICES UF BUUKS. 



Guide to the British Mycetozoa exhibited in the Department uf Butamj, 

 British Museum. By Arthur Lister, F.L.S. 8vo, pp. 4ii ; 

 44 woodcuts. 8d. 



Another oi the bye-ways of natural science has recently been 

 traversed, and important discoveries have rewarded the efforts of the 

 patient investigators, hov upwards of a decade Mr. Arthur Lister 

 ana members of bis talented family have studied most assiduously the 

 curious group of organisms known as Mycetozoa or Myxomyoetes. 

 borne oi the results of their labours have recently been given to the 

 scientific world. The Munnyiaph uj the Mycetozoa was reviewed m this 

 Journal for lby5, and now we liave this Guide, which is further illus- 

 trated oy a set of drawings and specimens representing the forty 

 genexa known to occur in this country, now on exhibition in the 

 botanical gallery of the iiritish Miibeum. Tlie illustrations are true to 

 lile, and snow most charujingly both the natural colours and general 

 habit of these creatures in tneir fruiting stage. They indicate not 

 only ariisLio skiU, but a practical knowledge of the intimate struc- 

 ture of the organisms. Possibly the drawing of a Lamproderma 

 would most readily arrest the attention of the casual visitor ; to the 

 practical worker in tins department of knowledge possibly the 

 bketch of tiie plasmodium ot Bud/uimia utricutaris would appeal 

 most strongly, it is so realistic that one almost expects to bee it 

 crawl oil' in search of food. Miss G. Lister deserves all the con- 

 gratulations t>he may receive for this, her special work. By means 

 of tiie printed guide, and a careful exainination of the drawings 

 with accuinpanyiug specimens, one may gain as much knowledge of 

 the subject in an hour as could formerly be obtained by months of 

 personal searcn. 



in the preparation of the system of classification Mr. Lister has 

 had a must arauous task. The numenclature has been cumbered 

 wiih numerous synonyms ; specimens in herbaria have been 

 wrongly named ; in some publisned lists closely allied species have 

 been strangely dissociated, and many supertiuous specific names 

 have been given. Mr. Lister has endeavoured to bring order out 

 of comparative chaos, and to represent as concisely as possible what 

 IS now known of the natural sequence of the various genera and 

 groups, in pursuit of this object he has examined tne national 

 collections at iDOuth Kensington and Kew, and tlie principal herbaria 

 on tne Continent ; has criticized the naming of large numbers of 

 specimens sent by correspondents in Britain, Europe, and America; 

 and, above all, has spent much time in searching for these creatures 

 m tneir natural haunts, both here and in other countries. 



It is probably present to the mind of the author, more forcibly 

 than to any of his possible critics, that no verbal descriptions — no 

 linear arrangement — can fully cover all the diverse forms, nor 

 suggest all the alfinities of the varieties one meets with in the field. 

 Even the iSub-cohort L, Cuicarinece, has its exception in the lime- 

 less form of Fhysarum nutans a. viulascens (Mon. 61); and the order 



