582 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 16, 1 1 



giving in an accessible form a detailed account of the 

 structure of these plants from the pen of one who has 

 already distinguished himself in this field. The second 

 volume is brought to a close by a treatise by Haberlandt 

 named " Die physiologischen Leistungen der Pflanzen- 

 gewebe," a subject well suited to one of the Schwen- 

 denerian school, to which its author belongs. Anatomical 

 facts, many of which are already well known, are here 

 placed before the reader in the light of the anatomico- 

 physiological method, which the pupils of Schwendener 

 claim as having been initiated by him in 1S74. 



From what has been already said, it is clear that this 

 " Handbook " will, by the individual worth of many of its 

 articles, take a prominent place among standard botanical 

 works, and will undoubtedly be of great service to ad- 

 vanced students. Further volumes are still in progress, 

 and the appearance of their successive numbers will be 

 looked forward to with interest. F. O. B. 



OUR BOO A' SHELF 

 A Synopsis of the British Mosses. By C. P. Hobkirk, 

 F.L.S. Second Edition. Svo, 240 pages. (London: 

 L. Reeve and Co., 1884.) 



THIS is a new edition of a work that appeared originally 

 in 1873. There is no other recent handbook of British 

 mosses, so that it has had the field entirely to itself, and 

 has had a large circulation amongst our home collectors. 

 It is a che.ip working handbook, something on the scale 

 of Babington's " Manual of the British Flowering Plants 

 and Ferns," without any figures, but with full diagnostic 

 characters of all the indigenous genera and species. 

 Britain is exceptionally rich in mosses, and in this new 

 edition 129 genera and 576 species are enumerated and 

 described, with a short notice of locality. 



Mr. Hobkirk is well known as an excellent practical 

 bryologist of many years' experience. He has not 

 attempted either in this or the previous edition to intro- 

 duce any novelty in classification. In the first edition he 

 followed Wilson closely, and Wilson in his turn deviated 

 but little in arrangement, nomenclature, and the circum- 

 scription of genera and species from the great standard 

 work on the mosses of the whole of Europe, the mag- 

 nificent " Bryologia Europea" of Bruch and Schimper, 

 which contains elaborate figures of every known species. 

 In this second edition Mr. Hobkirk has altered his classi- 

 fication to correspond with that of Jaeger's " Adumbratio 

 Muscorum," a change which we consider of very doubtful 

 utility, as it has the effect of making the preliminary 

 synopsis much more elaborate and more difficult for a 

 beginner to understand and use. 



An illustrated work on British mosses brought up to 

 the standard of Bruch and Schimper has been greatly 

 wanted. Now, Dr. Braithwaite is bringing out in parts 

 a work of this character, with admirable original drawings 

 and detailed descriptions. At the present time this is 

 about one-third completed, and it is greatly to be hoped 

 he may have health and strength to finish it. For any 

 one needing a cheap working handbook we can cordially 

 recommend the present book. It contains a brief glossary 

 of terms. Only the names that are adopted are given, 

 without any synonyms. One fault in the preliminary key 

 that will puzzle a beginner is the want of definitions for 

 the two primary divisions — Saccomitria and Stegomitria. 

 Another point that without explanation will likely puzzle 

 students is that the authorities cited for each species are 

 those of the author who first used the specific name, taken 

 quite independently of the genus under which it is now 

 placed, so that, for instance, Linnaeus is cited as the 

 authority for Etccladium verticillatum, when the genus 

 Eucladium was first characterised by Bruch and Schimper 



half a century after Linnaeus died. The orthodox plan is 

 to cite the authority for genus and species combined. 



J. G. Baker 



Our Insect Allies. By Theodore Wood. Svo, pp. 1-238. 



(London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 



1884.) 

 Writers on popular entomology are hard driven now- 

 aday to find titles for their works, or subjects that have not 

 already been worn to shred s by previous authors. To be 

 successful they must possess the same talent that enables 

 a chef-de-cuisine to contrive an entree from the same ma- 

 terials, so disguised by name and sauces as to lead his 

 patrons to consider they are partaking of a new dish. The 

 author of this nicely got up little book has evidently felt 

 himself in such a position, but on the whole he has suc- 

 ceeded very well, the more so because there are fewer errors 

 than ordinarily exist in popular entomological works. He 

 takes as his standpoint the fact that very many insects are 

 indisputably serviceable : some by ridding the world of 

 putrid or unhealthy organic matters, both animal and 

 vegetable ; some by destroying other insects undoubtedlv 

 noxious. The result is that we get here a series of 

 histories of individuals or groups detailed in popular lan- 

 guage, often from personal observation, and for the most 

 part well illustrated by woodcuts. The author evidently 

 feels himself most at home in dealing with the Coleo- 

 fiiera, and, as we think, judiciously takes up the position 

 that bark-beetles and wood-borers are scavengers, seek- 

 ing to devour what is already morbid, and are not the 

 cause of decay in the trees in which they are found. We 

 fail to follow his account of the mechanism by which the 

 click-beetles (p. 207) perform that acrobatic movement 

 so familiar to our childhood in the shape of the "jump- 

 ing frog " ; to our mind the " mucro " that is the chief 

 agent in this action is not " elastic." Why are the Afihis- 

 parasites known as Aphidius stated to be Chalcididce (p. 

 168) ? Why is a Syrphus larva figured (p 160) as that of 

 a "Golden-Eye," or " Lace- Wing " ? The introductory 

 remarks and the concluding notes contain some very 

 judicious reasoning on the aim and purpose of entomo- 

 logical studies, and we sincerely wish we could agree 

 with the author (p. 236) that collectors, as opposed to 

 students, are " now in a very small minority " ; a vast im- 

 provement towards this end has undoubtedly taken place 

 latterly, but the time for congratulation has not yet 

 arrived. The Society under whose auspices this little 

 book is published has done much towards popularising 

 natural history in this country ; this work may be classed 

 amongst the best of the series, and no doubt in a second 

 edition the author will revise it and rectify a few palpable 

 errors. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscript*. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their lettt rs 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance evm 

 op communications containing interesting and novel pacts.'] 



Shifting of the Earth's Axis 



Having quoted the Greenwich observations so often, and 

 with all respect, during the last twenty years, in my several 

 Great-Pyramid publications, as showing that there is a slow 

 shifting of the earth's axis going on, with the effect of altering 

 the latitude of places minutely from age to age (see more espe- 

 cially p. 81 of fourth edition of " Our Inheritance in the Great 

 Pyramid "), I cannot remain unconcerned when the present ener- 

 getic Astronomer-Royal comes out so very positively with the 

 statement that the Greenvvichobservations of the last forty-seven 

 years (which he confines himself to) show nothing of the kind, 

 and that there is no such movement of the earth's axis going on. 



