April \r^, 1875 J 



NATURE 



463 



script was prepared by Dr. Cooke. There is very much 

 that is interesting in this volume, but upon the whole the 

 book is a disappointing one. The editor states that the 

 work is intended for students, but we fear that the junior 

 student will be repelled rather than attracted by the hosts 

 of scientific names of genera and species which crowd 

 many of the pages with italics. Then we cannot but 

 condemn the mode of arrangement of the contents. 



The mode of division of the work renders it quite im- 

 possible for the reader to obtain any connected account 

 of the life-history of one single species. This we consider 

 a very grave defect indeed. To trace the life-histoiy of 

 one form we roay have to refer to the chapters on the 

 " Structure,'' " Germination and Growth," " Sexual Repro- 

 duction," and " Polymorphism " before we can obtain 

 what we want. This ought not to be, and we venture to 

 think Dr. Cooke would have rendered his book much 

 more useful if he had given connected life-histories of the 

 most interesting and best known forms. 



Some of the omissions have rather surprised us. For 

 example, we do not find any account of the yeast plant, a 

 form which most students of biology will do well to study 

 carefully. The rather meagre index does not contain the 

 words "Yeast," "Torula," " Hormiscium," or " Saccharo- 

 myes," although the word "yeast" occurs in the first 

 chapter. Then there is no account of the life-history of 

 the ergot of rye. Its life-history is perfectly well known, 

 and most students, whether medical or not, ought to have 

 some knowledge of it. 



The book is evidently the work of a systematic rather 

 than a morphological botanist, and this may account for 

 some of the eirors that have been made. For example, 

 the process of conjugation and formation of zygospores 

 in the Mucor is quite correctly described, but in what 

 way can Dr. Cooke apply the term conjugation to the 

 fertilisation of the oogonium by the anlheridium in Achlya 

 and Peronospora as figured on pages 169 and 171 ? The 

 formation of the ascogonium of Etiro/ium AspcixiUus- 

 glaucus is only slightly indicated on p. 189, while the 

 poUinodium is altogether omitted. The classification is 

 that given in Cooke's "Handbook," but, for the use of 

 the student, we do not think it equal to that given in 

 Grisebach and Reinke's translation of Oersted's " Sys- 

 tem der Pilze," &c. 



The Lichen-theory also receives a share of attention ; 

 Schwendener and his followers are condemned for the 

 " sensational romance of lichenology," as it has been 

 called. Truth, however, is often stranger than fiction ; 

 and if anyone would take the commonest lichen he can find 

 and give botanists a complete account of its life-his- 

 tory, he would earn the gratitude not only of all algolo- 

 gists, fungologists, and lichenologists, but of botanists 

 generally. 



The chapters on the " Uses," " Notable Phenomena," 

 "Influences and Effects," "Habitats," "Cultivation," 

 " Geographical Distribution," and " Collection and Pre- 

 servation," are very valuable ; and if the other chapters 

 had been run together into connected life-histories, we 

 think the work would have been an admirable one. As 

 it is, it cannot fail to interest and instruct, and every page 

 bears evidence of the extensive and accurate knowledge 

 of the author. The freedom from errors of the press in 

 the names of the fungi shows the care with which the 



work has been revised and edited. The illustrations are 

 numerous and good, but there are a few old faces among 

 them whose absence would not have greatly grieved us. 



MM. H. AND E. MILNE-EDWARDS'S AEIV 

 WORK ON MAMMALS 



Recherclics pour servir d. Fhistoire naturille dcs Mammi- 

 fires coviprenant des considerations sur la classification 

 de CCS animaux : par M. H. Milne-Edwards .• dcs 

 observations sur rhippopotame de Siberia et des Hudes 

 sur la Faune de la Chine ct du Tibti Oriental: par 

 M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards. Two vols. 4to., text 

 and plates. (Paris : G. Masson, 1868-74.) 



T AST year we called our readers' attention to the 

 ■L' zoological researches lately made in the Tibeto- 

 Chinese province of Moupin, by the French traveller, 

 Armand David,* and to the particular importance of his 

 discoveries in the class of Mammals. The work now 

 before us gives a complete account of the many new 

 forms the knowledge of which we owe to the energy of 

 this excellent traveller and naturalist, besides other im- 

 portant contributions to the history of the same class of 

 animals. 



The work commences with an essay by the veteran 

 zoologist, M. H. Milne-Edwards, upon the general clas- 

 sification of Mammals. The system here propounded, 

 which has many good points, and embraces details already 

 put forward by the author in previous writings, is not one 

 that we think will meet with very general approval. Its 

 chief feature is the elevation of the marine or pisciform 

 Mammals (containing the two orders of Sirenians and 

 Cetaceans) to a second sub-class equivalent in value to the 

 normal Mammals on the one hand and to the Marsupials 

 on the other, and the degradation of the Monotremes to 

 a mere subdivision of the latter. Prof. Huxley's views as 

 to the relative position of these groups, not to speak of 

 his general arrangement of the class, appear to us to be 

 much more easily justifiable. 



The main body of the work consists of three memoirs 

 by M. Alphonse Milne-Edward?, a worthy son of his 

 distinguished father, illustrated by a long series of well- 

 executed plates, which constitute the second volume. 

 The first of these memoirs contains observations upon 

 the hippopotamus of Liberia— a smaller form of the 

 animal now so well known to us from the exhibition of 

 living specimens in the Zoological Society's Gardens, and 

 in other collections. First described in America in 1844, 

 tlie smaller hippopotamus remained entirely unknown in 

 Europe until within the last few years, when specimens 

 were procured for the Jardin des Plantes by the exertions 

 of Prince Napoleon when Minister of the Colonies. The 

 figure now given by M. Milne-Edwards is the first that 

 has been published of the entire animal, and the general 

 skeleton is hkewise now for the first time described, only 

 the cranium having been known to the American natu- 

 ralists. 



M. Alphonse Milne-Edward's second essay is entitled 

 " Etudes pour servir li I'histoire de la Faune Mammalo- 

 gique de la Chine," and is based upon collections trans- 



• Nature, vol. x. p. 32 (May 14, 1874) 



