58 NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan., 



dimensions for much less ; and we are afraid that its expensiveness 

 will act as a serious bar to that wide circulation in schools to which 

 it is so well entitled, and which could not fail to influence most 

 favourably the teaching of elementary botany throughout the country. 



A. G. T. 

 Agriculture: Practical and Scientific. By James Muir, M.R.A.C. Pp. xv\, 



343, with 49 tables in the text and 39 illustrations. London : Macmillan and 



Co., 1895. Price 4s. 6d. 



The first impression this well turned-out manual leaves on the mind 

 is not unlike that which would be produced by the play of Hamlet 

 with the character of the Prince of Denmark omitted. Its subject is 

 agriculture and — as the title prominently sets forth — practical agri- 

 culture. If there is one feature more characteristic than another of 

 the agriculture of these islands it is the intense degree in which the 

 cultivation of the soil is bound up with, and essentially related to, the 

 maintenance of live stock. But the reader will search this volume in 

 vain for any information upon the meat- and milk- and wool-producing 

 animals of the farm, or for any enlightenment as to that useful 

 revival of recent years — horse-breeding. Had the book been called 

 " The Soil and its Cultivation," or " Soils and Crops," it would have 

 been correctly described, and the purchaser would not be misled by 

 the use of a name which has a far wider signification than the author 

 allots to it, though he must be well aware that agriculture embraces 

 Arvorum cultits pecor unique. 



The book comprises thirty chapters, some of them scanty and 

 insufficient, others copious and well-filled. About fifty pages are 

 devoted to the soil and its properties, followed by an equal space 

 dealing with the various methods of amelioration and improvement. 

 Next are five chapters, occupying some forty pages, in which are 

 discussed natural and artificial manures and the principles of manur- 

 ing ; this section of the work is well executed. Implements and 

 machinery are dismissed in the brief space of a dozen pages, and the 

 remainder of the book — some 160 pages — is given up to the main 

 crops of British agriculture, and it is here, perhaps, that we find the 

 author at his best. He has quoted freely from the publications of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, and students will no doubt be glad to find 

 placed at their disposal, in so condensed a form, the material thus 

 selected. It is incorrect, by the way, to substitute Achillea millefolia 

 for Achillea Millefolium, and Centauvea cyana for Centaurea Cyanns, but 

 Lychnis vespitina is probably a printer's error. 



Is the author right in his surmise that on irrigated grass-land a 

 film of slimy material will form on the surface of the herbage if the 

 water be allowed to run too long ? If that be the case, why does not 

 this film appear upon the ordinary submerged plants of our streams ? 

 It is much more probable that the film is due to stagnant water, a 

 circumstance that came prominently under our notice in the great 

 spring flood of 1882, when water-meadows were under stagnant water 

 for two or three weeks. In the economy of water-meadows standing 

 water is always feared, running water never. 



For the Young. 

 An Introduction to the Study of Zoology. By B. Lindsay. Svo. Pp. xix., 

 356, with 124 illustrations and diagrams. London: Swan Sbnnenschein, 1895. 

 Price 6s. 



Popular History of Animals for Young People. By Henry Scherren, F.Z.S. 

 Medium 8vo. Pp. vii., 384, with 13 coloured plates and numerous illustrations. 

 London : Cassell & Co., 1S95. Price 7s. 6d. 



