1897] SOME NEW BOOKS 59 
treatment, in regard to its Cainozoic volcanic areas, than is accorded to 
it in the present volume, which is far and away more generous than 
any predecessor. While Ireland cannot at any point equal the crags 
of Scuir na Gillean (p. 335), so finely set forth by Mr Abraham, yet 
we should have liked some recognition of the strikingly scenic aspect 
of the Mournes, one of the most ‘self-contained ’ and solitary moun- 
tain-groups in the British Isles. One page deals with this district, 
while as many as seven are devoted to the Limerick Basin, fourteen 
to the toadstones of Derbyshire, and thirteen to St Kilda. To ask 
for more, however, when we close these handsome volumes, is only a 
well-merited compliment to their author. G. A. J. CoLe. 
A Live NATURALIST 
RounD THE YEAR: A SERIES OF SHORT NATURE StupiEs. By Professor L. C. Miall. 
8vo, pp. vili., 296. With illustrations chiefly by A. R. Hammond. London: 
Macmillan & Co. 1896. Price, 5s. 
“Live Natural History!” The phrase is our author’s, and no better 
example of it could be found than this book. It is, we may imagine, 
just such a book as might have been written by Gilbert White had 
he lived in these days, and had the benefit of a thorough scientific 
training. Against the ‘dry, marrowless, useless, ‘melancholy’ and 
‘stodgy’ catalogue-type of natural history, the author raises a just 
protest. There is also a style of natural history writing that consists 
largely of phrases without knowledge and imagination unallied to 
observation. Professor Miall gives us the attempted literary charm of 
the latter with the accuracy and wealth of knowledge of the former. 
He takes us out into the fields and over the mountains, but does not 
forget that there is a well-stocked library at home. It is indeed a 
feature that we would fain see more of in so-called popular ‘ Natural 
Histories —this constant reference to fuller accounts and original 
authorities. So many writers treat their readers as sheer dyspeptics, 
unable to digest aught beyond pap. 
As examples of the subjects so fascinatingly and suggestively 
dealt with, we may mention: snow-flakes, birds in mid-winter, cat 
and dog, the moon, spring crocuses, catkins, the oil-beetle, the botany 
of a railway station, hay-time, cabbages and turnips, weeds, the love 
of mountains, the reversed spiral, the structure of a feather, the 
shortest day of the year. 
It is now July, and we find our author treating of duckweed. 
How many of us know its flower? Now is the time to see it. Let 
the field naturalist take some duckweed from the water, and, with 
Professor Miall, let him examine, describe, and draw it. The reasons 
for its peculiar shape may then be guessed at, and the guesses checked 
by experiments with models. Thus he is led to understand more 
about the relations of this common water-plant to its environment, 
and the ways in which it may spread from one pool to another. How 
widespread it is he must learn from books, such as Hegelmaier’s “ Die 
Lemnaceen.” 
A word of praise is due to the illustrations, the fresh pen-and-ink 
drawings by Mr Hammond being specially clear and artistic. 
