NOTICES OF BOOKS. 173 



members of our Club. Many have not taken up any definite 

 branch of work in microscopy for lack of such guidance. Mr. 

 Hilton has on several occasions drawn attention to the interest 

 and beauty of the objects of his study. 



In the first book mentioned Miss Lister has issued the material 

 of two Presidential addresses before the Essex Field Club. The 

 first part gives an interesting historical account of the study of 

 Mycetozoa in Britain, from John Ray, who refers to one of 

 our commoner forms in his Synopsis of British Plants (1696), 

 to the classic monograph by Mr. Arthur Lister : Descrip- 

 tive Catalogue of the Mycetozoa. The second part, dealing with 

 the habitats of the Mycetozoa generally, cannot fail to be of great 

 service in the search for these organisms. This section is followed 

 by a table giving some of the habitats of Mycetozoa, with lists 

 of species associated with each. The information contained in 

 this section and table is just of that kind which is helpful to 

 the student who has taken up the study of these organisms for 

 the first time, and is on the outlook for specimens. 



The Guide to the British Species of Mycetozoa, for which we are 

 indebted to the courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, 

 has now reached its fourth edition. The opportunity has been 

 taken of carefuUy revising the text, and at the same time bringing 

 the nomenclature of the species into conformity with the Inter- 

 national Rules. Nearly three dozen species have been recorded 

 as British since the date of the last edition of the Guide. 



With the aid of these two inexpensive books any member of 

 our Club might lay the foundation of a very useful study of 

 some of the problems of biology. 



An Introduction to the Study of Cytology. By Prof. 

 L. Doncaster, Sc.D., F.R.S. xiv + 280 pages + 24 plates 

 and 31 figs, in text. 8f x 5| inches. (Cambridge : At 

 the University Press, 1920. Price 21s. net.) 



Cytology has in the past been very largely a morphological 

 and descriptive science ; its aim has been to observe the struc- 

 ture of cells, to determine the parts of which they are composed, 

 and to describe the changes through which they pass in the 

 various phases of rest and division. But inevitably the study 

 of morphology leads on to that of function, and there arises in 



