'34 



M)irum 



[January 13, 19 16 



1025 species, 586 described as new. These forms 

 are illustrated by ten plates containing: 350 

 coloured figures and by a number of structural 

 text-figures. Notwithstanding this there are 

 grounds for thinking that only the fringe of the 

 Central American microlepidopterous fauna has 

 been touched. Dr. Godman's collectors had to 

 obtain insects of all orders, and could not devote 

 attention to micro-moths to the exclusion of other 

 groups. Thus the most able collectors could 

 scarcely obtain samples of more than a portion of 

 the Microlepidoptera. These insects cannot be 

 packed and preserved so easily as those of many 

 other groups. They require special treatment of 

 a very delicate kind, which it is not easy to give 

 when collecting all orders, as the writer of this 

 review can testify from his own experience in the 

 forests of certain tropical islands. 



The extended aim of the work has necessitated 

 a vast amount of bibliographical research. In 

 connection with questions of nomenclature a pro- 

 test is entered against the practice, now becoming 

 prevalent, of arbitrarily "selecting and maintain- 

 ing generic names by summary fixation of types 

 without due regard for previous work done by 

 critical authors." Lord Walsingham contends 

 that however necessary in the interests of priority 

 and uniformity arbitrary rules may be for the 

 present and future, they should not be made retro- 

 spective. When the limits of genera have been 

 modified by the careful and expert work of earlier 

 writers, such modification must be taken into 

 account; otherwise a death-blow may be struck 

 at the whole system of true priority. 



The names of the three specialists responsible 

 for it are a guarantee of the high quality of this 

 treatise, and its appearance as the last systematic 

 volume of the Biologia forms a fitting close to 

 the monumental work of Dr. Godman and the 

 late Mr. Salvin. Hugh Scott. 



BOTANY, NATURE STUDY, AND 

 GARDENING. 

 (i) The Study of Plants: an Introduction to 

 Botany and Plant Ecology. JBy Dr. T. W. 

 Woodhead. Pp. 440. (Oxford : At the 

 Clarendon Press, 1915.) Price 55. 6d. 



(2) A School Flora for the Use of Elementary 

 Botanical Classes. By Dr. W. M. Watts. 

 New edition. Pp. viii + 208. (London: Long- 

 mans, Green and Co., 191 5.) Price 35. 6d. 



(3) The Surrey Hills. By F. E. Green. Pp. x + 

 252. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1915.) 

 Price 75, . 6d. net. 



(4) In Pastures Green. By P. McArthur. Pp. 



xi-l-364. 



(London and Toronto 



5^ 



Dent 



J. M. 



and Sons. Ltd., 191 5.) Price 55. net. 

 (5) How to Lay Out Suburban Home Grounds. 



By H. J. Kellaway. Second edition. Pp. x + 



134. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; 



London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) 



Price 8s. 6d. net. 

 (i) 'TH^HE course of work in elementary botany 

 i set forth in this book is such as to 

 fulfil admirably the author's main object : the 

 establishment of the fundamental principles of 

 plant physiology ; while the prominence given to 

 plant ecology and the admirable manner in which 

 this aspect of the subject is treated are just what 

 one would expect from a writer who has con- 

 tributed so materially to the progress of this 

 branch of botany. Form and structure, however, 

 are by no means neglected in Dr. Woodhead 's 

 well-planned course, but merely made subservient 

 to physiology and ecology; morphological facts 

 are treated in relation to function and habitat, 

 while the necessary morphological data are intro- 

 duced where required in the discussion of the 

 various types of vegetation. The book is 

 liberally illustrated, and the figures are mostly new 

 and all extremely good, a large proportion being 

 photographs. It would be very difficult to find a 

 better introduction to the study of plant ecology 

 than is given in the section, extending to about 

 ninety pages, with fifty illustrations of which many 

 are very fine photographs of vegetation, devoted 

 to this subject. We could wish that cjimatic 

 factors had been somewhat more fully dealt with, 

 and it seems rather inadvisable at present to 

 introduce any terms for vegetation units beyond 

 the non-committal " plant community " in a book 

 intended for young students. It is safe to predict 

 that Dr. Woodhead's book will be widely adopted 

 for class use, and It Is to be hoped that it will 

 come into the hands of every teacher of botany. 



(2) Watts's "School Flora" is too well known 

 and extensively used by teachers and students of 

 elementary botany to require further commenda- 

 tion for its good points — its cheapness and handi- 

 ness, and the usefulness of the keys to the fami- 

 lies, genera, and species of vascular plants. This 

 new edition Is stated In the preface to have been 

 "thoroughly revised," but the chief features of 

 the revision appear to consist in the addition of 

 a key for the identification of trees and shrubs 

 from their leaves, and in the extension of the list 

 of schools near which the rarer plants grow — this 

 fact being noted in connection with the descrip- 

 tion of each plant concerned. The first feature 

 mentioned is useful, but the second strikes us as 

 worse than useless; it appears somewhat foolish 



NO. 24x1, VOL. 96J 



