l89 6. SOME NEW BOOKS. 203 



The purchaser of the volume may or may not be pleased to find 

 that he has also acquired a classified list, occupying eighty pages, of 

 Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co.'s publications, though one of their most 

 important botanical works is, we notice, conspicuous by its absence. 



Biblical Botany. 

 The Plants of the Bible. By the Rev. George Henslow, M.A., F.L.S. Fcap. 



8vo. Pp. 128, with 7 plates. London : Religious Tract Society. Price is. 

 This little book forms one of the " Present Day Primers " series in 

 course of issue by the Religious Tract Society, for the benefit of 

 ministers, teachers of Bible-classes, and all general readers who take 

 an intelligent interest in subjects connected with Biblical study and 

 with religious life and work. From this point of view, Mr. Henslow's 

 brief account of the plants referred to in Holy Writ forms a useful 

 little volume, and should find a place in every Sunday-school library. 

 In the introduction is a short account of the flora of Palestine and its 

 relation to those of neighbouring countries. The eleven chapters 

 that follow treat of textile materials, herbs, odorous gums, resins 

 and perfumes, fruit trees, timber trees, desert trees and plants, 

 field weeds and water plants. Wherever possible, the plant-name of 

 Scripture is correlated with its modern equivalent, and some account 

 of its habit and properties is introduced, while the author often 

 improves the occasion with a few remarks of more religious tone. 



British Land and Fresh-water Molluscs. 

 A Monograph of the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the British Isles. 

 By John W. Taylor, F.L.S. , etc. Parts I. and II. 8vo. Pp. 128, with 

 2 coloured plates, and woodcuts. Leeds: Taylor Bros., 1894-5. Price 6s. per 

 part. 

 Since the appearance of Jeffreys' book in 1862 and Reeve's in 1863 

 no work of first-rate importance on the non-marine Mollusca of the 

 British Islands has appeared, although Tate, Rimmer, Adams, and 

 writers of still less conchological note have from time to lime put 

 forth small volumes intended to be more or less popular treatises on 

 the subject. Hence the time is fully ripe for the publication of Mr. 

 Taylor's Monograph, which has been expected for many years. As 

 all readers of the Journal of Conchology know, the quondam editor of 

 that periodical has had the subject thoroughly at heart for many a 

 year, and has spared no pains in the endeavour to master it, his 

 efforts being crowned with a success which is all the more note- 

 worthy considering its study had to be pursued in the leisure 

 moments of a busy commercial career. That the present work 

 should show traces of this handicapping was, of course, inevitable ; 

 the wonder is that more shortcomings are not visible. 



In the two parts, whose appearance has been separated by a 

 considerable interval of time, the author cannot be said to have 

 touched the subject in question at all as yet, for, not without wisdom, 

 he has prefixed some considerable preliminary matter which almost 

 amounts to an introduction to Conchology in general. Starting with 

 a definition of the science, he proceeds to give outlines of classifica- 

 tion and nomenclature, whence he passes to the structure of the shell, 

 its form and variations, both normal and abnormal, in shape, size, 

 and colour ; while remarks on the operculum and clausium bring the 

 second part to a close. 



Having hinted at shortcomings, perhaps it may be as well to 

 dispose of the more prominent of these. At the outset, it seems a 

 pity Mr. Taylor should have gone to an obsolete encyclopaedia-article 



