'i]Q6 3TisceUaneou.<i. 



these pages, and it will occur to many as the chief one — the equality 

 of the treatment throughout. Undoubtedly certain chapters, such as 

 the fourth, containing the introduction to the comparative survey of 

 the groups of Fungi, will strike one as eminently impressive and 

 of special value ; but from the nature of the subject and the 

 necessary method of treatment, this follows as a matter of course. 

 The intimate knowledge and unrelaxed grasp of detail is equal 

 throughout, and inspires both confidence and admiration in one who 

 seeks it for guidance through conflicting theories and obscure facts. 



Geokge Murkat. 



Our Insect Allies. By Theodore Wood. Small 8vo. Society 

 for Promoting Christian Knowledge: London, 1884. 



We have heard so much in times gone by of " insect enemies " that 

 it is refreshing to find an author who is willing to be an advocate on 

 the other side. Mr. Wood, indeed, in the little work before us, is, 

 perhaps, inclined to go a little too far, and now and then unduly 

 magnifies the possible benefits that we may receive from insects. 

 But this is excusable in an advocate, and it has the further advan- 

 tage of enalding the author to make his book much more of a 

 general introduction to the study of entomology than it could other- 

 wise have been. As a sketch of the history of some of the com- 

 moner insects it is well suited to foster a taste for entomology in 

 young people, and will guide them safely in their earliest steps. 

 Indeed, in one respect especially, it takes ground that we are glad 

 to see occupied, for while starting as a description of some of the 

 insect allies of m;in, its goes directly against that old-fashioned line 

 of thought which is so common, in which every thing is measured 

 from the human point of view. Mr. Wood, on the contrary, points 

 out to his readers that the insects of which we complain as destroying 

 or injuring our property have an existence quite independent of 

 us, and that it is only what he terms the " unnatural conditions " 

 introduced by civilization that have converted most of them into 

 recognizable enemies. 



The little book is pleasantly written and illustrated with nume- 

 rous woodcuts, many of them pretty good, while others are certainly 

 very poor. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Note on the Occurrence of some rare Foraminifera in the Irish Sea. 

 By Charles Elcock. 



Last spring I obtained a dredging of about four pounds of very 

 tenacious mud from a point south-west of the Isle of Man, depth 



