344 NATURAL SCIENCE. May. 



Dorset Botany. 



The Flora of Dorsetshire, with a Sketch of the Topography, River System, 

 and Geology of the County. By. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, B.A., F.G.S., etc. 

 Second edition, with two maps. 8vo. Pp. 345 and 63. Dorchester : 

 Dorset County Chronicle Printing Works, 1895. 



We are glad to see that Mr. Mansel-Pleydell has brought out a second 

 edition of his " Flora of Dorsetshire," in which is incorporated the addi- 

 tional knowledge gained since 1874, the date of the first edition. 

 Though " printed for private circulation only," this valuable work 

 will doubtless find its way into the hands of all interested in the 

 botany of Dorset in particular and of Great Britain in general. The 

 flora is prefaced by a useful sketch of the topography and geology of 

 the county, and there are also two very good maps, geological and 

 botanical respectively. Under each species the author cites the first 

 record, the habitat of the plant, the localities in which it occurs, and 

 its general distribution as regards the neighbouring counties of Devon, 

 Hants, Somerset, and Wiltshire, and also Normandy. With vascular 

 Cryptogams and Characeas, there are 1,173 species; this includes, 

 however, certain denizens and aliens. 



The fair number of records credited to his own name shows that 

 Mr. Mansel-Pleydell has himself laboured in the field, as well as 

 entered into the labour of others, the latter, indeed, with full acknow- 

 ledgment. 



Injurious Insects. 



Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Farm Pests, during 

 the year 1894, with Methods of Prevention and Remedy. Eighteenth Report. 

 By Eleanor A. Ormerod. Svo. Pp. viii., 124, lxii., 4. London: Simpkin, 

 Marshall & Co., 1895. Price is. 6d. 



This is a book distinctly aggressive to insects. It is most interesting 

 to the general reader, and invaluable to the farmer. It would be 

 instructive to know how many farmers buy it, and then how many of 

 the buyers put the valuable advice it contains into practice. 



In a short preface, Miss Ormerod says " the most important 

 discovery of the year is that which we owe to the skilled re- 

 searches of Professor John Percival, of the South Eastern Agricultural 

 College, Wye, near Ashford, Kent, of the presence of two kinds of 

 eelworms at the roots of Hops, of which one kind, which is seriously 

 destructive to various kinds of crops on the Continent, had not 

 previously come under notice in this country, and neither had been 

 previously observed at Hops." A full account of Professor Percival's 

 discovery has been given by Miss Ormerod in her Report (pp. 47-61). 

 She understood that it was to have been published in the Journal of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society for 1894. As a matter of fact, that 

 Society did not publish the paper at all, but it was published in 

 Natural Science for March this year, and Miss Ormerod has 

 acknowledged the unexpected alteration in a slip inserted in her 

 Report. 



The insects which receive honourable mention in Miss Orme- 

 rod's present Report are only two in number, — the Golden Eye 

 {Chrysopa perla), and the Eyed Ladybird Beetle (Coccinella ocellata). 

 The first of these, known also as the Lace-wing Fly, is carnivorous 

 in the grub stage, and will eat aphides, its fellows, or a caterpillar 

 mucn larger than itself; the second, the " ladybird," has a partiality 

 for Red Spiders, and while in the maggot state devours them vora- 

 ciously. All other insects mentioned in the Report are condemned, 



