48 THE VICTOKIAN NATUKALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



BOOK NOTICES. 

 Victorian Hill and Dale. By T. S. Hall, M.A., D.Sc, 



Lecturer in Biology, University of Melbourne. Melbourne : 



T. C. Lothian. Price, 3s. 

 This little volume of 160 pages is the first attempt to place the 

 geology of Melbourne and a few other centres in Victoria before 

 the general reader in a popular manner. The work is the out- 

 come of a series of articles contributed to the Argus in 1905-6 

 by Dr. Hall, which -were so much appreciated that a desire was 

 expressed for them in book form. With the additional help of 

 forty illustrations and maps the author has arranged his story so 

 clearly that the average student should have no difficulty in 

 grasping the main facts of the why and wherefore of the hills and 

 valleys around us. Technical language is conspicuous by its 

 absence, but a useful appendix shows the geological age of the 

 various rock series mentioned. 



Handbook of Destructive Insects of Victoria (Part IV.) 

 By C. French, F.L.S., F.E.S., Government Entomologist. 

 Melbourne : Osboldstone and Co. Price, 2s. 6d. 

 It is greatly to be regretted that the Department of Agriculture 

 is not provided with sufficient funds for the publication of its 

 " Handbook of Destructive Insects " at shorter intervals. Refer- 

 ence to Part III. will show that nearly nine years have elapsed 

 since its appearance. That it is not the talented author's fault is 

 shown by the fact that he has sufficient material prepared for two 

 more parts, which, at the present rate of progress, will not appear 

 till long after those who are anxiously waiting for the information 

 will have ceased to require it. The only point of satisfaction in 

 connection with the delay is that in the interval the three-colour 

 process of illustrating has been developed, and the 34 plates in 

 the present part are fine specimens of that work, and portray the 

 various species even more faithfully than did the lithographs 

 of the earlier parts. Following the plan of the last part, Mr. 

 French has included plates and descriptions of 14 useful birds,, 

 so that farmers, &c., may have no difficulty in recognizing their 

 friends. The 20 plates and descriptions of insects include a 

 number of species which are chiefly destructive to our forest trees 

 rather than to fruit trees, but there is always the risk that as the 

 former become fewer, the insects will take to cultivated trees, as 

 has happened in the case of the apple root-borer, &c. It is 

 needless to say that the work is written with Mr. French's usual 

 thoroughness, the illustrations are mostly from drawings by Mr. 

 C. C. Brittlebank, while Messrs. Osboldstone have done their 

 part of the work excellently. For those whose duty it is to keep 

 within the law a list of the proclaimed insect and fungus pests is 

 included, as well as the amended Vegetation Diseases Act and 

 its schedules, while a useful appendix gives the latest particulars 

 as to materials in use for the destruction of noxious insects and 

 methods of use. 



