APRIL 11, 1907] 
NAT ORE 
Soi 
lation to snowy days, and their number and distribu- 
tion throughout the year are illustrated, as usual, 
with compact tables of mean values for a large 
number of stations. Mean first and last snowrfalls, 
here effectively tabulated, are important factors in 
the estimation of the climate of any place. 
To this point the work deals with general con- 
ditions and mean values drawn from the long and 
trustworthy records discussed. In the sequel, that 
most obvious fact about rainfall, its variability, re- 
ceives attention. The outstanding and apparently 
abnormal features are discussed, and a very complete 
list of dry and wet seasons from 1851-1900 is here 
available for critical investigation. The attempt to 
correlate these changes with larger variables, cyclic 
or otherwise, is a most important work. The rain- 
fall, considered in relation to the well-known sun- 
spot period, seems to indicate that periods of maxi- 
mum precipitation are bound up with maxima of 
sun’s spotted area. The author, however, is not 
able to consider these directly related as cause 
and effect, while he suggests that Sir Norman 
Lockyer’s views as to the importance of prominences 
and allied phenomena may be nearer the true relation. 
The reader is specially referred to Sir Norman 
Lockyer’s ‘‘ Report on Simultaneous Solar and 
Terrestrial Changes ”’ as best setting forth the general 
relationship between these two classes of phenomena. 
The second and third volumes contain tables of 
data arranged under observing stations in the river 
basins. 
The work is a monument to the value of scientific 
organisation and industry, and illustrates the high 
worth of collecting long, trustworthy, and continuous 
meteorological records. 
OUR BOOK SHELF. 
The Zoological Record. Vol. xlii. Being Records of 
Zoological Literature relating chiefly to the Year 
1905. Edited by D. Sharp. (London: Zoological 
Society, 1906.) 
Wir this volume ends, at any rate for the present, 
the series of this invaluable work with which we 
have been so long familiar, for next year the 
amalgamation with the zoological section of the 
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature is to 
commence. One effect of this change will be to 
make a radical alteration in the abbreviations 
employed for the titles of zoological serials, a change 
which, from the point of view of the working 
naturalist, is distinctly to be deplored. Whether the 
new arrangement will give that relief to the recorders 
to which the editor alludes so confidently in the pre- 
face remains to be seen. 
In the main, the present volume follows the same 
lines as its predecessors, and displays the usual high 
level of excellence. 
down, it has, however, been found practicable to 
make a considerable reduction in the number of 
papers in the general section. 
Owing to the retirement of one old and experienced 
member of the staff, it has been necessary that a new 
recorder should undertake the sections dealing with 
reptiles (inclusive of amphibians) and fishes, and it 
NO. 1954, VOL. 75] 
By a rigorous system of cutting | 
is unfortunate that the editor has not apparently 
realised that this new member of his team required 
more attention than the old stagers. To allude to a 
tithe of the serious and misleading errors in these 
two sections would be impossible, and we can only 
indicate a few of the most glaring. Geography 
seems a very wealx point with this recorder. In the 
fish section, for instance, the Rio Negro is placed in 
Africa, while the eastern seas of the Russian Empire 
are included in Europe. Arabia in the reptile sec- 
tion comes under the heading of Africa, while in 
the fish section Muscat and Oman ‘are placed in 
Asia. ‘‘ Ophidia,’’ too, is so placed and printed on 
p. 27 of the reptile record as to convey the idea that 
it stands for a country. It should also have been ex- 
plained that ‘‘ Riu-kiu”’ is the Chinese equivalent 
of “ Liu-kiu ’’ or ‘‘ Loo-choo.”’ 
As to misprints, it might almost be said that their 
name is legion; but, as examples, it must suffice to 
notice Epiorates for Epicrates, gandryi for gaudryi, 
Hoodwell for Hordwell, Malaclemmys for Malaca- 
clemmys, and Tyrranosaurus (repeated in the list of 
new genera) for Tyranosaurus. . In the case of a 
large number of new species of reptiles the localities 
are omitted, while many papers quoted in the title- 
list are not referred to in the subject-index. None of 
the genera: included in the Percidz really belongs to 
that group. 
The other recorders seem, for the most part, to 
have done their work well, although it would have 
looked better if the somewhat long list of corrigenda 
to the mammal record had not been required. 
The Principles of Horticulture. A Series of Prac- 
tical Scientific Lessons. By Wilfred Mark Webb. 
Pp. 136. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1907.) 
Price 2s. 
THE experience of the author as a former teacher and 
demonstrator in the Essex County Council School of 
Horticuliure has served him in good stead. He puts 
a plant into the hands of the pupil, shows him how 
to study it, indicates to him what there is to be learnt 
from it, both as to external form and internal func- 
tion, and having thus rendered help’ in the pre- 
liminary stages leaves the pupil to make himself 
master of further details by his own exertions. 
We rather doubt the advantage of beginning 
microscopical work at so early a stage, and should 
prefer to defer the investigation of the minute 
anatomy of a plant until the pupil has become 
familiarised with the facts of morphology. The 
search for sieve-plates and companion cells might 
well be left until the pupil has familiarised himself 
with morphology and classification. Stress is very 
properly laid on the importance of drawing, as every 
student soon finds the great help of sketches of even 
the roughest kind, provided that they show what the 
draughtsman saw or intended to see. Accuracy of 
detail rather than artistic effect is what should be 
aimed at, and it is a matter of surprise to see the 
excellent representations which pupils make after very 
little practice. The illustrations in the present book 
afford a good example of our meaning; they show 
what they are intended to show, though they are not 
pictures. A list of the natural families, arranged 
according to the system of Engler, is given. For the 
purposes of the beginner it would, we think, have 
been better to have picked out some dozen or score of 
the most important orders, and to have omitted a 
mass of detai! not required by the average student 
and not full enough for those who desire more com- 
plete information. 
