152 NATURAL SCIENCE. Aug., 



severe winter as well as during the ordinary season for visitors. 

 One fault only we have to find. His pictures of the broads, though 

 striking enough to those who already know the district, will often 

 scarcely be intelligible to strangers, for he has a habit of leaving 

 out essential parts of the description — parts so familiar to the 

 author and to the natives that they have ceased to be remembered. 



Mr. Emerson is a good field naturalist, and his book is full of 

 interesting notes on the habits of the birds, though there is nothing 

 strikingly novel. Among the notes on the fish, there is a very 

 curious one on a large take of eels at Geldeston Lock in December, 

 after a very severe frost, and with the river full of ice and snow. 

 As eels usually hybernate in winter, this was most unexpected, and 

 we are glad that a naturalist like Mr. Emerson was on the spot 

 and can vouch for the fact. Can this sudden appearance of eels 

 have been connected with the formation of anchor ice, which 

 disturbed the eels in the muddy bottom in which they had been 

 lying ? The formation of anchor ice is not a common phenomenon 

 in Norfolk ; but the severe frost with clear sky which the author 

 recorded a few days before ought to have caused its appearance. 

 Mr. Emerson makes also a good many remarks on the manners 

 and customs of the natives. He seems, however, to be much more 

 able to appreciate the good points of a fish or of a bird than of a 

 human being ; our own experience has not led us to consider the 

 Norfolk people so utterly boorish as he pictures them. 



Manuel de Geographie Botanique. Par Oscar Drude, traduit par Georges 

 Poirault et revu et augmente par I'auteur. Livraison I. Paris: P. Klincksieck, 

 1893. Price fr. 1.25. 



There are so many who find French easier reading than German that 

 a translation in the former language of Drude's important book will 

 be very generally welcomed. The value of the present work is, 

 moreover, enhanced by the fact that it is reviewed and augmented by 

 the author so that it should be in every way up to date, a matter of 

 importance when dealing with geographical distribution, a subject in 

 which new series of observations on plant biology, or the better un- 

 derstanding of the flora of a region and its relations to neighbour- 

 ing ones, may necessitate a reconsideration of hitherto accepted 

 theories. 



According to the advertisement, the complete work will form a 

 volume of about 500 pages (8vo), and will include 4 coloured maps 

 and 3 figures in the text. It will be published in 12 or 13 parts, each 

 containing two or three sheets of text. We are glad to note that the 

 parts will follow each other rapidly. The price of each part is i fr. 25, 

 the subscription to the complete work, payable in advance, 15 francs. 



Part I. contains 48 pages, and is clearly printed on good paper. 

 It comprises an introductory definition of the subject, with a brief 

 account of its relation to geology and physical geography, and also 

 a portion of the first part of the book dealing with the influence 

 of external agents on the plant organism. Under geographical agents 

 are considered the influence of duration and intensity of light, of 

 heat, cold and dryness ; acclimatisation is briefly disposed of, and a 

 section on phenology follows. Next, under topographical agents, the 

 influence of the soil is discussed. We shall await with interest the 

 succeeding parts of what promises to be a valuable work. 



