352 
NATURE 
[ Sez. 1, 1870 
on the shelves of people who concern themselves about 
tree-cultivation and general nursery-work. It has a con- 
siderable value, too, as a contribution to Scientific Botany, 
for its author has had long experience, with very favourable 
opportunities, in connection with everything woody,*hardy 
enough to bear exposure in the open air in Prussia. He is 
a good botanist and an enthusiast in his speciality, so 
that his book includes much useful information, especially 
of that kind, too seldom put on record, possessed by 
workers in the open air, or so scattered through periodical 
botanical and gardening literature, as to be hardly avail- 
able ata pinch. To English botanists and nursery-folk 
it offers many interesting features. One amongst many 
others is the opportunity it affords of comparing the cli- 
matic differences between Britain and Central Europe, as 
deducible from the copious data which the “ Dendrology” 
gives relating to the capacity of the various species to 
resist the severity of continental winters. 
Here is an example of the author’s plan of treatment. 
We take the common Aucuba, or so-called “variegated 
laurel,” of every English shrubbery. Awkuba, not Aucuba 
Prof. Koch says it must stand :— 
A. Japonica, Thunb. FI. Japon. 64, tab. 11 and 13 (1784). 
THE JAPANESE AUKUBA. 
Japan. 
Flowers in May and June. 
Leaves varying in form, mostly elliptical or elongate-Ianceo- 
Tate, usually sharply toothed above the lower third, glabrous : 
inflorescence with appressed hairs; petals ovate-lanceolate, 
dark brown-red ; berries coral-red. 
One of the most beautiful of evergreen shrubs, unfortunately 
scarcely hardy in north-eastern Germany, even when protected in 
winter, though thriving in the open airin France and Rhine-land. 
Jn England it is a prime favourite. 
Then follows a general account of the habit of the 
plant. 
Until quite recently we have had only the bright-yellow-spotted 
female shrub in our gardens, but since Von Siebold and Fortune 
have introduced the unspotted male plant, and a number of new 
forms, Avkuba japonica promises to compete with the Holly in 
variety. In the last catalogue (1867) of the Siebold-Garden, 
Witte has published no fewer than twenty-four forms as already 
in the trade. 
Here are enumerated some of the more important of 
these, arranged according (1) to form of leaf, (2) kind 
or mode of variegation, and (3) toothing of the leaf- 
margin. 
Altogether more than a page is devoted to this Awcuba. 
To its less-known Himalayan congener, 4. hzmalazca, 
about half as much. The common Barberry extends over 
nearly five pages, but it is an extreme case of a variable 
and much-cultivated plant. 
Throughout the plan is pretty much the same as is 
followed in Aucuéa. After the name follows synonymy 
so far as may be needed; then frequently some explana- 
tion of the origin of the name, whether generic or 
specific, often including a biographical paragraph in the 
case of plants commemorating some person. Then follows 
the geographical distribution of the species. Here we 
may remark, what this book is especially apt to recall, 
the curious fact familiar to every botanist, how many well- 
known species of tree and shrub, even such as are not 
likely to have undergone material modification under 
culture, are of doubtful origin,—the horse-chestnut and 
walnut for example. Persia and the Central Asiatic 
= Down indeed te A lyssua saxatile and [berts saxatilis. 
plateau generally are credited with these trees, and 
probably the guess is in the right direction, though no 
wild specimens exist of either species in our herbaria. 
There are some things we cannot agree with in the book, 
of course. For example, we should not undo Crategus, 
and make all our thorns into medlars (AZesPz/us); nor 
do we consider the reasons given suffice to justify a 
renaming of our common lime-trees (77/za) ; but these are 
matters too technical for discussion here, and after all of 
subordinate importance. 
The first volume only, including the Polypetalous Na- 
tural Orders, is as yet published. Just at present German 
gardens are left pretty much to take care of themselves, 
and we fear there is no chance of the second volume 
until we have this miserable war settled. D, OLIVER 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Travels of a Naturalist in Fapan and Manchuria. By 
Arthur Adams, F.L.S., Staff-Surgeon R.N. (London: 
Hurst and Blackett, 1870.) 
THOSE who wish to see what a world of pleasure may 
be opened up to one by an adequate knowledge of 
some department of Natural Science, ought to read this 
book. Mr. Adams is an enthusiastic naturalist, with a 
special “weakness,” as he terms it, for insects, and the 
delight he has experienced in the hunt for specimens, and 
the close observation of his favourites in different parts of 
the world, have been simply endless. We should hope that 
some of his readers will find his eagerness “ catching,” 
and be led to feel new interest in objects which they have 
hitherto regarded with indifference, or perhaps treated as 
anuisance. Among other animals observed by Mr. Adams 
with more or less care, was one of two specimens of the 
scaly ant-eater (Manis Favanica)—a female—which came 
under his notice. During the day she remained coiled up 
in a ball, but grew lively asnight approached. In walking 
“she trod gingerly on the bent under-claws of her fore- 
feet, and more firmly on the palms of her hind-feet.” One 
of her favourite attitudes was that of her gigantic extinct 
analogue, the Mylodon, as seen in the model of Water- 
house Hawkins in the gardens of the Crystal Palace. 
Supported on her hind limbsand “the firm, flattened, power- 
ful, muscular tail,” she would raise her fore-feet, moving her 
head and body from side to side, and peering cautiously 
about with her “little round prominent eyes.” On the 
least alarm she tucked in her head between her fore legs. 
On one occasion she was coiled up in.a strong net and 
supposed to be properly secured ; when night approached, 
however, she easily burst her trammels, and was dis- 
covered by the violent barking of a little dog who was 
puzzled and alarmed by the apparition of so strange a 
visitor. Both specimens were fed on raw eggs and chopped 
raw beef, and seemed to thrive. Besides observations of 
this sort, Mr. Adams’s readers will find scattered through- 
out his work some pleasant sketches of natural scenery, a 
few descriptions of amusing personal adventures, and 
occasional glimpses into the different customs of the 
countries he has visited. 
Echinides du Départemente de la Sarthe considérés au 
point de Vue zoologigue et stratigraphigue. Par 
MM. Cotteau et Triger. Avec 65 planches de fossiles, 
dessinées et lithographiées d’aprés nature par MM. 
Levasseur et Humbert, to planches de coupes géolo- 
giques, et 2 tableaux. Willams and Norgate, 1855— 
1869.) 
NOTHING can afford better evidence of the zeal and 
assiduity with which palzontology is now pursued than 
the fact mentioned by M. Cotteau in the preface to this 
work, that whereas MM, Agassiz and Desor, in their 
