2 20 



NATURE 



[July 9, 1903 



coming from the Lake of Como, and the exquisite 

 drive to Soglio, are passed over. The " Palace Hotel " 

 at Maloja has its prospectus printed almost in full, 

 but many of the excursions from it are catalogued 

 under Sils, The carriage roads up the Fex Thai and 

 Roseg Thai, the restaurants at Curtins, on the Surlei 

 Furka, Piz Languard, and elsewhere, are left out, 

 though in other districts restaurants are noted. The 

 Bernina Hospice and Bernlna Houses have been con- 

 fused. The inn at the foot of the Morteratsch Glacier 

 and that on the Diavolezza Pass, the latter the best 

 starting point for many peaks and passes, are ignored. 

 The way to Boval is said to be " rough and over 

 snow "; there is an excellent path; so there is, since 

 1902, up Piz Julier, said to be "diflficult. " The Alp 

 Misaun is suggested as a starting point for Piz 

 Morteratsch. No travellers prefer its hay to the good 

 accommodation offered by the Roseg Inn or the much 

 higher Tschierva hut. 



It is an easy task to pick holes in a guide-book 

 covering such an extensive field as Switzerland. We 

 have preferred to collect our bundle of blunders almost 

 entirely from a single district. We could easily have 

 made it bigger without going farther, and by extend- 

 ing our survey we might fill columns. But enough 

 has been done to warn travellers who may be tempted 

 by the numerous and, as a rule, excellent maps to 

 purchase this volume that they must not rely on its 

 information as regards either ordinary excursions or 

 glacier expeditions. Nor in many cases can u^e at all 

 agree with the editors' estimates of scenery. We should 

 hesitate to call the Bel Alp " a beautiful and secluded 

 village," or to characterise " the scenery round the 

 Borromean Islands " as " strikingly grand." The in- 

 dex stands in need of careful revision. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 

 The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and 

 Burma. Published under the Auspices of the 

 Secretary of State for India in Council. Edited by 

 W. T. Blanford. Hymenoptera. Vol. ii. Ants 

 and Cuckoo- Wasps. By Lieut.-Colonel C. T. Bing- 

 ham. Pp. xix + 506. (London: 1903.) 

 The first volume of this work appeared in 1897, and 

 included the wasps and bees, and now the second 

 volume has been issued, containing the still more 

 interesting family of the Formicidag, and also the small, 

 but very beautiful, family of the Chrysididae, or ruby- 

 tail wasps; or, as Colonel Bingham calls them, the 

 cuckoo-wasps. This completes the important section 

 of Aculeata, or stinging Hymenoptera, and the mono- 

 graphing of the remaining groups, which are still very 

 imperfectly known, is very properly deferred for the 

 present. We are, however, pleased to see that Colonel 

 Bingham has undertaken to prepare a work on the 

 butterflies of British India for the same series. 



Colonel Bingham divides the Formicidae into five 

 subfamilies, Dorylinae, Ponerinae, Myrmecinae, Doli- 

 choderinae, and Camponotinae (498 species) ; and Chry- 

 sididae with four subfamilies, Cleptinae, Ellam- 

 pinae, Chrysidinae, and Parnopinae (79 species). When 

 we remember that instead of 498 species of Formi- 

 cidae there are only about forty species in Britain, and 

 only about a hundred in all Europe, the difference 

 between a temperate and a tropical fauna becomes 

 sufficiently obvious. 



NO. 1758, VOL. 68] 



A very clear account of the external characters ot 

 ants is given in the introduction, elucidated by 

 numerous figures of structure. The bulk of the work 

 is almost exclusively descriptive, but includes useful 

 keys to genera and species, synonymy, and occasional 

 notes on habits. Exigencies of space necessitate the 

 latter being of the utmost brevity, which, though 

 obviously unavoidable, is none the less to be regretted, 

 for the habits of many Indian ants are extremely 

 interesting. 



The 577 species described by Colonel Bingham in 

 the volume before us are illustrated by 161 text illustra- 

 tions, frequently including structural details as well. 

 Occasionally more than one species of a genus is 

 figured. A coloured plate is added, witn sixteen 

 coloured figures of Chrysididae. Among the most 

 interesting of the uncoloured figures are those repre- 

 senting the curious spiny ants of the genus Poly- 

 rhachls. 



Comparatively few new species are described, for 

 much has been written on Indian Formicidae in recent 

 years. But, except as regards the obsolete catalogue 

 of F. Smith, almost all that has been published is 

 scattered through a variety of scientific periodicals not 

 always easy of access, and we congratulate Colonel 

 Bingham on the completion of a comprehensive work 

 which must greatly facilitate the study of his subjec'. 

 to all future workers. 



Dendrologische W inter studien. Von Camilla Karl 



Schneider. Pp. vi + 290. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 



1903.) Price 7.50 marks. 

 The study of our tropophytic trees and shrubs In their 

 winter condition has been somewhat neglected from the 

 systematlst's point of view. While such works as those 

 of Sargent and Willkomm have hitherto supplied the 

 wants of the forester, still the number of species they 

 deal with is limited, and a more extended list is re- 

 quired. To meet this want the author of the above 

 work has set himself no small task, and, in our 

 opinion, has achieved a degree of success which only 

 great patience and perseverance could attain. The book 

 deals with 235 genera. Including 434 species of in- 

 digenous and introduced deciduous trees and shrubs 

 in Europe. A notable feature of the work Is the large 

 number of Illustrations, 224 in all, which are reproduced 

 from photographs and hand drawings of actual 

 specimens. 



The subject-matter is divided into three sections — a 

 general, a special, and a systematic. The first section 

 deals with general organography, and gives a wide and 

 comprehensive survey of the subject. The reader Is 

 thereby well prepared for what is to follow in the next 

 section, which is the bulkiest and most important one 

 in the book. It Is devoted to the special consideration 

 of the various species in their winter condition. The 

 descriptions are short and concise, many abbreviations 

 being used, which are, however, fully explained at the 

 beginning of the section. The accompanying figures, 

 which illustrate the salient features of the species de- 

 scribed, are very instructive and well drawn. The 

 author attaches more importance to good figures than 

 to descriptions, and has consequently produced a large 

 number of drawings which alone would, in most 

 cases, amply suffice for purposes of identification and 

 comparison. The classification of the leafless twigs is 

 somewhat intricate, but this is unavoidable when a 

 large number of species has to be tabulated. Following 

 this comes a section giving a systematic arrangement 

 of the various species dealt with. The system adopted 

 is that of A. Engler. 



In the bibliography at the end, the more important 

 dendrological works are cited, and a short statement of 

 their contents given. 



