February i r, 1909] 



NA TURE 



427 



An inspection of the plates and reference to the text 

 show how valuable an aid they afford to the student 

 in the recognition of the species. 



The continuation of the work will be looked for 

 with desire and hope by all interested in this beautiful 

 family of microscopic algae. 



Crops, their Characteristics and their CiiUivation. 

 Bv Primrose McConnell. Pp. .xii+iij. (London: 

 C'assell and Co., Ltd., icjoS.) Price is. net. 



The author of this little book is one of the few present- 

 day farmers who are also writers, and he has given 

 us an admirable account of the crops commonly cul- 

 tivated, which cannot fail to be valuable both to the 

 agricultural student and the practical man. The first 

 two chapters are devoted to the general conditions 

 necessarv for plant growth, and to those conditions 

 which, though not essential, are favourable, and there- 

 fore complied with in practice. Then follow descrip- 

 tions of the various crops arranged under their agri- 

 cultural headings, viz. cereals, pulses, forage crops, 

 root crops, and grasses. The last two chapters deal 

 respectively with the manuring of crops and with their 

 common pests. 



The book is well up to date in practical matters. 

 The author notes the growing tendency to depart 

 from strict rule in the matter of rotations, and to grow 

 whatever pays best at the moment, provided always 

 there is a change of crop. He also observes that 

 improved methods of cultivation and the use of labour- 

 saving machinery have made it possible to grow wheat 

 at prices impossible thirty years ago, and he antici- 

 pates a revival of wheat cultivation in England. Most 

 of those who have studied the problem will agree 

 with the author here. 



On the scientific side the author tends to take a 

 rather more definite position than the evidence jus- 

 tifies, e.g. in his account of nitrification, of the acid 

 excreted by roots, and of the reason why certain crops 

 require certain manures rather than others ; but other- 

 wise the book is verv free from errors, and can be 

 cordially recommended to all interested in the subject. 



The Moths of the British Isles. By Richard South. 

 .Second Series, comprising the Families Noctuidae to 

 HepialidiE ; viith accurately coloured figures of every 

 .Species, and many ^■arieties; also drawings of Eggs, 

 Caterpillars, Chrysalids, and Food-plants. Pp. vi-l- 

 376; 159 plates, 20 text-figures. (London and New 

 York : Frederick Warne and Co., 1908.) Price 

 7s. 6d. net. 



The present volume concludes Mr. South's excellent 

 synopsis of the British Macro-lepidoptera, which occu- 

 pies three volumes, one of butterflies and one of 

 moths having appeared previously. We have already 

 >poken favourably of the earlier volumes, and it is 

 now our pleasing duty to say that there is no falling- 

 off in the execution of the text and plates of the 

 volume before us. Little attempt is made to describe 

 the perfect insects ; and indeed a good figure is in 

 many cases sufficient for the identification of many 

 insects ; but the range of variation is usually indi- 

 cated, and caterpillars, habits and localities are usually 

 reairded in detail. .As before, we have usually coloured 

 figures of moths on one side of a plate, and plain 

 ones of caterpillars and chrysalids on the other ; but 

 sometimes, as in plate 146, which represents 

 Zygaenidae, we have coloured figures of moths on both 

 sides. The figures are usually excellent, but in the 

 case of the emeralds they are unsatisfactory, the 

 figures coming out rather under-coloured, which we 

 suppose is due to some deficiency in the colour- 



NO. 2050, VOL. 79] 



printing. The letterpress is very good and up-to-date, 

 but we do not notice on pp. 55 and 56 any reference 

 to the two specimens of Thalpochares parva taken by 

 Dr. Battersby at Torquay in 1859. 



In conclusion, we may say that English names for 

 butterflies and moths, which were alwaj's reprobated 

 bv .Stainton, have been coming into general use lately, 

 and most of the popular books now issued give them 

 equal prominence with the Latin names. W. F. K. 



Les Stations lacustres d'Ettrope aux Ages de la 

 Pierre et du Bronze. By Dr. Robert Munro. French 

 edition by Dr. Paul Rodet. Pp. 295. (Paris : 

 .Schleicher Freres, iqoS.) Price 12 francs. 

 This is an excellent translation into French of the 

 classical work of Dr. Munro on " The Lake Dwellings 

 of Europe," reviewed in Nature, February 12, 1891. 

 The French edition is not so extensive as the original 

 work. It deals only with lake dwellings of the Stone 

 age and of the Bronze age, the chapters relating to 

 lake dwellings of the Iron age, to the terramara of 

 North Italy, to the terpen of Holland, and to the 

 crannogs of the British Isles being omitted. Several 

 valuable additions have, however, been made to the 

 French edition which make it a very complete, up-to- 

 date compendium of the Stone and Bronze age lake 

 dwellings of Europe. Among these additions we note 

 a map of the lake dwellings surrounding the Alps 

 prepared by M. Adrien de Mortillet, and a map of the 

 lake dwellings of Lake Bienne discriminating between 

 those of the Stone, Copper, Bronze, and Iron age. 



Paragraphs are added by the translator giving a de- 

 scription of discoveries that have been made since 

 the date of publication of the original work in 1890. 

 It is to be regretted that the translator has not 

 brought up to date Perrin's statistics of bronze 

 objects from Lake Bourget. 



An interesting table is given of the analysis of 

 bronzes from the lake dwellings, and we note that 

 many of them contain small percentages of lead, 

 nickle, cobalt, iron, silver, antimony, and zinc. 

 These foreign substances may be of some value in 

 helping to trace the provenance of the ores used 

 by these prehistoric peoples for their metallurgical 

 operations. 



Les Progri's reccnts de V Astronomic. By Prof. P. 



Stroobant. Pp. 98; illustrated. (Brussels: M. 



Hayez, 112 rue de Louvain, 1908.) 

 All who are interested in the progress of astronomical 

 knowledge should welcome Prof. Stroobant's most 

 useful summary, now issued separately as an extract 

 from " L'Annuaire astronomique de I'Observatoire 

 royal de Belgique." 



This small volume is nearly three times the size 

 of its predecessor, and contains a risume of practically 

 all the important astronomical discoveries and advances 

 made during the year 1907. In the first section we 

 get an account of the solar work, including notes on 

 the re-determinations of the sun's rotation period and 

 parallax ; then follows a summary of the observations 

 of the transit of Mercury, which is illustrated by a 

 pair of photographs arranged for the stereoscope, a 

 duplicate, detachable plate being included to obviate 

 the necessity of defacing the book. 



The observations of the planets, of comets, of 

 variable and double stars, &c. , are also discussed, 

 and the book concludes with various notes on such 

 subjects as stellar distances, nebulae, refraction, and 

 the variation of latitude. The section dealing with 

 comets is illustrated by two excellent photographs of 

 Daniel's comet, taken by Prof. Wolf at Heidelberg. 



W. E. ROLSTON. 



