464 NATURAL SCIENCE. June. 



the physiology of nutrition. When the student has honestly 

 worked through these chapters and seen, with the help of a 

 competent teacher, a good series of preparations illustrating 

 the various points of anatomy, etc., he will be well- 

 grounded in structural botany, and ready for more detailed study 

 and investigation, with the further advantage of having nothing 

 to unlearn. The importance of the practical demonstration of struc- 

 tural features is insisted on in the preface, and with good reason, as 

 the excellence of the figures might tempt the teacher to dispense 

 with a microscope, especially as his sections will probably often be 

 inferior to those so ably drawn by Mrs. Scott. Many of the figures 

 are new, a welcome change from the well-worn " after Sachs " ; 

 several good ones have been borrowed from Strasburger ; and 

 Payer's diagrams illustrating the development of the flower of the 

 wallflower and lily have been successfully reproduced by process. 

 Almost the only feeble one is the last, a seedling of Picea, and after 

 Kerner too ! Messrs. Black have made a valuable addition, well 

 produced in handy form, to their list of scientific publications. 



Geographical Distribution of Plants. 



Manuel de Geographie botanique. Par Dr. Oscar Drude, traduit par Georges 

 Poirault, at revu et augmente par I'auteur, avec 4 cartes en couleurs, et 3 figures 

 dans le texte. Livraisons 2, 3. 8vo. Pp. 49-128. Paris: P. Klincksieck, 

 1893. Price of each part, i fr. 25. Subscription price, to complete work (12 

 or 13 parts), 15 francs. 



In reviewing the first part of this translation and re-edition, which 

 appeared last June, we commended the idea and also the italicised 

 notice in the advertisement which stated that the parts would rapidly 

 succeed each other. This promise has not been very well kept, which 

 seems a pity, as there can be no doubt as to the value of the work. 



In parts 2 and 3 now to hand, Section III., on biological varieties 

 of organisation determined by geographical and topographical factors, 

 which is an account of forms and zones of vegetation, brings us to 

 the end of the first part of the book, and we proceed on page 40 to the 

 second, in which the author brings together evidence to prove that 

 the areas now occupied by plants have been determined by geological 

 evolution, by the superficial structure of the globe, and b}^ climate. 

 The tendency to dispersive migratory power, the development of 

 special floras or faunas as the result of geographical isolation, are 

 considered, and insular floras and those of high mountain chains 

 and deserts adduced in evidence. 



Insular floras supply proof also of the date of issue of parts 2 and 

 3, which is given on the cover as 1893. O'^ P^g^ ii4> however, we 

 find a reference to a review of the subject by Mr. Hemsley, which, as 

 correctly stated in a foot-note, appeared in Science Progress in 

 March of the present year. We trust that there may be no delay in 

 subsequent issues to necessitate such falsification of date. 



Lichens. 



A Monograph of Lichens Found in Britain, being a Descriptive Catalogue 

 OF THE Species in the Herbarium of the British Museum. By the Rev. 

 James M. Crombie, M.A., F.L.S., &c. Part I. 8vo. Pp. viii., 519, with 74 figures 

 in the text. London : Printed by order of the Trustees, 1894. 



The ordinary person, or even the botanist who is not a lichenologist, 

 will marvel at the number of British Lichens, and the more when 



