Bih liograph ical Notices. 151 



cardiola," " Paleaster," " Brodei," " Cronchii," " crenistra." We 

 imagine that " Heterostracon " and " Osteostracon Cephaspidae " 

 (p. 219) should be either English, Heterostracous and Osteostracous 

 Cephalaspids, or properly converted into the Latin form. 



The guidance of the Author, of Mr. Jones, gardener at Builth, and 

 other good people, is recommended passim to the reader ; and papers 

 in the 'Geological Magazine' and other useful periodicals are cited 

 for information old and new : but why the only perfect geological 

 work on Xorth Wales (Geol. Surv. Mem. vol. iii.), the real basis of 

 Mr. Symonds's country, should not have been kept well before the 

 reader, and why the guidance of the Geological Surveyors should 

 have been so little thought of, it is difticult to conjecture. 



We have thus pointed out several matters for improvement in this 

 well-intentioned book, which we hope will be requii-ed in a new 

 edition. Written by one who has known his country-side, with cul- 

 tivated intelligence and an eye for nature, for many years, and who 

 has long enjoyed the companionship of good observers, thinkers, and 

 writers, the Eev. Mr. Symonds's ' Records of the Eocks,' like his other 

 writings, is directed, with a good and useful aim, to the advance of 

 knowledge among the so-called " educated," but frequently little- 

 informed, class of society. It is a learned and comprehensive guide- 

 book, thoroughly imbued with a love of nature in her many aspects, 

 and with a desire that all should benefit by an intelligent recognition 

 of the natural sciences and by scientific pursuits. 



A Manual of PaJfi-ontology for the Use of Students, ivitJi a General 

 Introduction on the Principles of Palaeontology. By H. A. Nichol- 

 son, M.D., D.Sc, (fee. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1872. 



Schools and colleges now find themselves better provided with 

 zoological and palaeontological text-books than heretofore. Dr. 

 Nicholson's ' Manual of Pala;ouloiOgy' has several good points. 

 Though very comprehensive it is not too diftuse (only to Graptolites, 

 a favourite subject, are a few extra pages given) ; it keeps the con- 

 ditions of fossHization and geological succession well before the reader 

 (especially in Parts I. and IV.) — and treats the Vertebrate remains 

 less in detail than the Invertebrate, in accordance with the larger 

 acquaintance the student has usually to make with the latter than 

 with the former.. 



Part III., on fossil Plants, treated of as the successive floras of 

 geological periods, is a useful addition to the palajozoology, and is 

 earefuUy worked as far as it goes ; but unaccountably it makes no 

 mention of the Diatomacea? and the Calciferous Algae {Lithothamnium 

 &€.), which, like Chara, play such an important part in the consti- 

 tution of many strata. 



The author judiciously handles fossils of obscure affinities, such as 

 Stro.natopora, Beceptacidites, Cross'opodia, ifec. But a study of Mr. 

 Albany Hancock's memoir " on Vermiform Fossils,'' in the 'Annals 

 of Natural History' for 1858, would have enlightened him on the 

 nature of the last-mentioned fossil and its innumerable allies, in- 



