124 



NATURE 



[June 9, 1898 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 The Flora of Perthshire. By F. Buchanan White, M.D. 



Edited by James W. H. Trail, A.M. Pp. Ixi + 407 ; 



with a portrait of the author, and a map of the county. 



(Edinburgh : W. Blackwood and Sons, 1898.) 

 It had long been known that the late Dr. Buchanan 

 White was preparing a " Flora of Perthshire," when his 

 death in 1894 arrested the progress of the work. The 

 manuscript was then put into the hands of Prof J, W. H. 

 Trail, who has edited it. 



The book is well arranged ; clear, perhaps at the 

 expense of detail of secondary value. For such we must 

 consider the long strings of exact localities, common in 

 such works, in this one usually summed up into short 

 general statements. There is no doubt that the book 

 has been carefully planned, that its aims are broad, and 

 that all matter not of real concern has been excluded. 

 Here and there we find critical remarks, or statements of 

 the variability of the species. These are interesting ; but 

 the great feature of the book is in the new data relating 

 to the altitudes reached by plants. It will be noticed 

 that the upper limits of species usually are in excess of 

 those given more than half a century ago by H. C. 

 Watson for the Eastern Grampians ; also that they differ 

 in different parts of the county. So many of the glens 

 of Perthshire run east and west, and gather from this 

 cause heat in a way which glens open to north winds do 

 not. Perhaps this accounts for the difference. The 

 subject is one yet wanting many observations. 



The manuscript appears to have been less complete 

 when it changed hands than was thought. As a result 

 we see a slight want of uniformity. One, who, like 

 Dr. Buchanan White, united into a single species Viola 

 tricolor and arvensis, would not be likely to follow the 

 division of the genus Hieraciuin to the extreme. It is, 

 indeed, a cause for regret that the author left no outline 

 of the introduction, which he could so well have written. 

 The essay reprinted in its place only deals with one 

 question ; and for others, which would have found a 

 place, we must seek in his published papers. A list of 

 these papers is incorporated in the book with a memoir 

 of the author. I. H. B. 



Manual Training: Woodwork. A Handbook for 



Teachers. By George Ricks, B.Sc. Lond. Pp. 187. 



(London : Macmillan and Co., 1898.) 

 Working in wood with carpenter's tools is now pro- 

 vided for in the curriculum of many public elementary 

 schools, as well as in technical schools, with the object 

 of training the manual and visual faculties to act in 

 connection with the mental. Used with care, this manual 

 work becomes a valuable educational agent, but unless 

 it is carried out on an orderly system it degenerates 

 into mere tinkering. Mr. Ricks has kept the true aims 

 of manual training well in mind in the preparation of 

 his work. " Our aims," he says, "must be wholly educa- 

 tional. We must arouse interest and quicken intelli- 

 gence. W^e must develop and strengthen habits of 

 attention, industry, and perseverance. We must train the 

 eye to accurate observation, and the hand to dexterity 

 in execution." The aspirations are commendable, and 

 the author's experience has enabled him to develop a 

 practicable scheme of work in which it is shown how 

 they can be carried into effect. Beginning with a chapter 

 on drawing as a factor in manual training in wood, this 

 is shown to be the fundamental basis of the work. The 

 necessity of exact measurement in all work, and the use 

 of working drawings, is insisted upon ; and rightly, for 

 without drawings to scale, exact and intelligent handi- 

 work is scarcely possible. An instructive chapter is 

 given on the various woods used as timber, their struc- 

 ture, growth, preparation and properties. We notice 

 that in explaining specific gravity with reference to 

 NO. 1493, VOL. 58] 



timber, Mr. Ricks adopts as his standard the weight of a 

 gallon of water (10 lbs.), the specific gravity of oak thus 

 being 8, of beech 7, and so on. This is convenient for 

 some reasons, but it is apt to create confusion ; and if 

 the child afterwards learns that the specific gravity of 

 iron is 7, he will wonder whether the metal or the wood 

 is the heavier. 



After the preliminary chapters and exercises come 

 systematic work on the use of carpenters' cutting tools, 

 simple workshop operations, and bench work from work- 

 ing drawings. The book shows evidence of thought and 

 experience, and should prove of service to teachers of 

 manual training. 



A Description of Minerals of Cotninercial Value. By 

 D. M. Barringer, A.M., LL.B. Pp. 168. (New York : 

 John Wiley and Sons. London : Chapman and Hall, 

 Ltd., 1897.) 

 A SET of tables for the identification of minerals is very 

 useful to mineralogists and others ; and as this note-book 

 contains such tables and little else, it is welcome. The 

 information is conveniently arranged so that it can 

 be quickly referred to, nevertheless there are so many 

 omissions that the book cannot be used to the exclu- 

 sion of other books on mineralogy, and consequently 

 its chief claim to consideration, that of saving time, falls 

 to the ground. For example, under the heading of lead 

 ores, only galena and cerussite are mentioned, although 

 six compounds of bismuth and five of antimony are de- 

 scribed. It may be hoped that Mr. Barringer will see 

 his way to making his book more complete in future 

 editions. 



Ludwig Otto Hesse's Gesammelte Werke, herausge- 

 ^eben von der Mathematisch-Physikalischen Classe 

 der Koniglich Bayeirschen Akadeviie der PVissen- 

 schaften. (Miinchen, 1897.) 

 Collected into, one large quarto volume of over 700 

 pages, ranging in date from 1838 to 1874, we find here 

 the mathematical articles in which Hesse laid the found- 

 ations of the modern analytical theory of Solid Geometry, 

 with the details of which we are familiar in the treatise of 

 Dr. Salmon. 



The subjects discussed are all of geometrical interest, 

 even where the title may indicate an algebraical flavour, 

 as the analytical developments are such as arise from the 

 investigations of geometrical properties. We may in- 

 stance the researches on the Functional Determinant, 

 called after the inventor the Hessian, which has played 

 so important a part in the hands of Sylvester and Cayley. 

 A biography, based on a memorial lecture by Prof. G. 

 Bauer, completes the volume ; in it a characteristic 

 remark of Sylvester is embodied. It is interesting to 

 learn that Jacobi utilised Hesse as a collaborator In 

 developing the theory of the Attraction of Ellipsoids. 



G. 



Kromskop Colour Photography. By Frederic Ives. Pp. 



xvi -h 80. (The Photochromoscope Syndicate, Ltd., 



1898.) 

 Most of our readers have either seen or heard of Mr. 

 Ives' process of colour photography, known now under 

 the name of the Kromskop System. In the small book 

 we have before us, Mr. Ives gives the reader a concise 

 account of the principles involved in this method of pro- 

 ducing coloured pictures, describing and explaining at the 

 same time the construction and action of the various 

 kromskopes which are now being manufactured. This 

 information will be found very serviceable to any one who 

 wishes to attain the maximum of efficiency in this branch 

 of photography. In addition to the above instructions, 

 reference is made to the literature on the subject, and 

 various extracts relating to the nature, theory, &c., of 

 colour from writings of well-known men are inserted. 



