April 25, 1895] 



NATURE 



605 



It is thus not safe to put forward any assumptions, 

 based either upon chemical relationship or similarity of 

 general properties, concerning the behaviour of colouring 

 matters in this respect ; and therefore, recognising the 

 \alue of a systematic examination, the author gives, at 

 considerable length, the results obtained in recent years 

 by Hummel. 



When discussing certain experiments in which arc 

 lamps have been employed as the source of illumination, 

 it is stated that the electric light behaves similarly, but 

 less energetically, than sunlight ; the average bleaching 

 action of sunlight having been estimated at 30 per 

 cent, of its total luminosity, while that of the electric arc 

 is only about 6 per cent. 



The third section of the first volume deals with 

 oper.-itions subsequent to dyeing, such as soaping, mill- 

 ing, steaming, &c. It is very short, extending only to 

 four pages. Two appendices, the first dealing iwith 

 theories of dyeing, and the second with the elements of 

 chromatics, are added, and the volume ends with a very 

 complete bibliography of the works on dyeing published 

 during the last 100 years. 



The second volume is devoted to a description of the 

 machinery used in dyeing and allied processes, a very 

 Urge space, equal in fact to the whole of the first 

 volume, being occupied by the subject of water purifica- 

 tion ; which, although of great importance to the dyer, 

 certamly receives undue prominence. The great fault 

 of the work, as a whole, is indeed a certain lack of pro- 

 ])ortion ; many essential points receiving scant attention, 

 while valuable space is occupied to smaller advantage 

 by long descriptions of less important subjects — such, for 

 instance, as the Westinghouse air-pump. Nevertheless, 

 the book should prove a valuable reference work for 

 managers of works, or students of dyeing, to whom it 

 can be heartily recommended. 



Walter M. G.^rdner. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and 

 Burma. Published under the authority of the Secre- 

 tary of State for India in Council. Edited by W. T. 

 Bianford. " Moths," Vol. ui. By G. F. Hampson. 

 (London : Taylor and Francis, 1895.) 



We have already noticed the two preceding volumes of 

 this work in some detail ; and it is therefore unnecessary 

 to say more respecting the general execution of this 

 volume than that the letterpress is arranged in a similar 

 manner, and that the execution of the woodcuts is equally 

 good. The present volume includes the last two sub- 

 families of the yV6'tV«/(/«-',the/'('<vy//>;(r, and \}i\i.I)eUoidinic, 

 and one or two small families of the Ge,iinetridcr. Re- 

 specting the Dcltoidimc, Mr. Hampson remarks: "It 

 exhibits a gradual development from forms with straight 

 palpi fringed with hairs above, such as llypcna, which 

 is closely allied to the Sarrothripime, and to the ances- 

 tors of the Noctuida and Nolina, through forms with 

 oblique palpi, to a group possessing palpi of an ex- 

 tremely curved sickle-shaped type; from this group 

 arose the stouter-built, more typically noctuiform and 

 nocturnal Focillina- and (Juadri/iiKi-." We seriously 

 doubt the advisability of speaking in such a positive 

 manner on questions which cannot, in the present state 

 of our knowledge, be anything more than very doubtful 

 inductions, at the best. 



NO. 1330, VOL. 51] 



After the Nocluidce, Mr. Hampson places the families 

 Epicopiidce, Urantida:, hpiplemida:, and Ceoinetridie, 

 for the last of which he has followed Mr. Meyrick's 

 classification. Under the Uraniidcc he includes a con- 

 siderable number of genera, most of which, except 

 Nyctaleinon, were included by previous authors in the 

 Microniidce, and other families ot Geometrida. A fourth 

 volume is to conclude the i ndian Macro-Lepidoptera, and 

 to contain the Pyralidce and a supplement ; and we are 

 glad to learn that Lord VValsingham is working at the 

 Micro-Lepidoptera of India. 



Mr. Hampson speaks of the difficulty of the sub-family 

 Boarmiince in the Ueoinetridce j and under the genus 

 Boarinia itself he includes no less than eighty-five species, 

 divided into several sections, to some of which sub-generic 

 names are applied. As, however, no less than twenty- 

 eight generic names are included as synonyms of Boarmia, 

 we think it would have been better to have treated some, 

 at least, as provisionally entitled to generic rank. And 

 this leads us to a consideration of the most serious de- 

 fect in all Mr. Hampson's work, which has already been 

 pointed out in more than one quarter. He is too 

 much inclined to place forms together as varieties, and 

 then to treat them as actual synonyms. It is true that 

 in a few instances in the present volume he discriminates 

 between named varieties ; but far more frequently he 

 gives a description of a species in a lew lines, preceded 

 by a string o( hall-a dozen or more names, without any 

 hmt of how far these names represent distinct forms, or 

 which names represent his idea of the species he is de- 

 scribing, even when he nonces that the species is vari- 

 able. While making allowance for exigencies of space, 

 this is hardly fair to those who will use his books ; for 

 even if we assume that Mr. Hampson is always correct 

 in his views as to which forms are entitled to specific 

 rank, and which are only to be regarded as varieties, it is 

 not to be supposed that every one will take exactly the 

 same view ot a doubtful case ; and we greatly fear that 

 if an entomologist meets with an insect which does not 

 correspond with the description of a species given by Mr. 

 Hampson, he will at once describe it as new, and, in many 

 cases, redescribe one of the forms which Mr. Hampson 

 has rejected, with a light heart, as a mere synonym. 



Apart from this serious delect, we can recommend the 

 book as a most useful and, indeed, quite indispensable 

 manual for all who are interested in East Indian Moths. 



W. F. KlRBV. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



The Editor ,lots not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return^ or Co correspond with the writers of rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NaTURK. 

 Xo notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Origin of the Cultivated Cineraria. 



Rktukning from abroad, I have just seen Mr. Dyer's letter 

 in Natuke, Maich 14. Of the matters there ireated I ask 

 leave now lo deal wiih one only, that numbered (iS). This is 

 a point of (aci — the origin ol the culuvaled Cineraria. At a 

 meeting of ihe Royal .'society, on Kebjuary 28, Mr. Uyer 

 exhibited a specimen of Ctiuraria cruenta from the Canaries, 

 side by side with a plant of the common cullivated form. With 

 the object uf minimising the value of "sports" in evoluiion, 

 this exhibition was made lo illustiaie what can be done " by the 

 gradual accumulation ^f small varialions." Mr. D)cr slated, 

 it 1 rightly understood him, first, that ol the two forms exhibited, 

 the one had been produced from the o;her ; secondly, that, as 

 far as is known, this process ol evolution had been accomplished 

 by the gradual accumulation of small variations, and not by the 

 selection of "sports" or seedlings presenting notable and 

 striking variations. That in the case of a plant much modi- 

 tied by gardeners in recent limes such a history would be highly 

 unusual, Mr. Dyer will, I think, admit. 



