380 
NATURE 
| Feb. 10, 1870 
The study of economic entomology, especially with 
reference to insects injurious or beneficial to agriculture, 
has long been zealously followed in the United States, 
and the writings of Harris and Fitch are well known on 
this side the Atlantic. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
The Sun. By Amédée Guillemin. Translated by T. L. 
Phipson, Ph.D. Pp. 296. 58illustrations. (Bentley.) 
MONSIEUR GUILLEMIN is favourably known among us 
by his beautiful book “The Heavens” and the present 
volume may be regarded as a considerable expansion of 
his chapters on the sun in that work, with additional 
matter, giving an account of the recent solar discoveries. 
The expansion has been very judiciously done; but the 
new matter introduced has been added, in too much 
haste and consequently the recent conquests of Science 
do not come out so satisfactorily as they might otherwise 
have done. In “ The Heavens,” M. Guillemin did what 
Frenchmen very rarely do—he took the trouble to inform 
himself on what was done in England, America and 
Germany. In the present instance he has taken his infor- 
mation from French sources exclusively and the result is 
oor. 
Still, for those whose purpose it is to inform themselves 
on the sun generally, the book fills a gap and may be 
safely recommended. Mr. Phipson has done his part 
well—except where he has added notes and the book in 
its English dress is pleasant to the eye. 
Handbook of Physical Geography. 
Jun., F.R.G.S. Pp. 220, (W.and A. K. Johnston, 
Edinburgh and London. 1870.) 
THIS is the text to accompany the altogether satisfactory 
half-a-crown atlas we noticed some time ago and in 
saying that the text is as good as the maps, we intend to 
convey high praise. Within the limits of somewhere 
about 200 pages, Mr. Johnston has contrived to give a 
very admirable account of the various natural phenomena 
with which physical geography has to deal ; the facts are 
well and widely chosen. The style is clear and the 
arrangement a very model. 
Of the four divisions of the book—Topography, Hydro- 
graphy, Meteorology and Natural History, the two 
central ones possibly present evidences of the greatest 
care; for instance in Map 18 (the Mediterranean basin), 
the contour lines both of height and depth have been 
investigated by Mr. Johnston expressly for this work and 
in Map 13 (Physical Geography of Palestine) the isotherms 
have been worked out from observations at Alexandria, 
Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo and other 
places. 
We heartily commend this book both to teachers and 
students. 
By Keith Johnston, 
The Advanced Atlas: consisting of Thirty-two Maps, 
containing all the Latest Discoveries and Changes in 
Boundaries ; 7ke Progressive Atlas: consisting of 
Thirty-two Maps—and Zhe Primary Atlas: con- 
sisting of Sixteen Maps. All constructed and en- 
graved by J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S. (William 
Collins, Sons, & Co. Glasgow, Edinburgh and 
London.) 
ALL these maps, even including the sixteen in the 
“Primary Atlas” which sells for sixpence, are printed in 
colours ; their engraving is of a high order, the maps 
being rendered clear by a judicious omission of names. 
Tt would have been better for the young student if the 
boundaries between States, ¢.z., Turkey and Greece, had 
been made more decided in the “ Advanced Atlas.” Great 
care has been taken in many cases, Africa for instance, to 
introduce the most recent discoveries. 
Echoes in Plant and Flower Life. By Leo H. Grindon, 
Lecturer on Botany at the Royal School of Medicine, 
Manchester. (London: Pitman, 1869.) 
WE opened this little book in the hope of finding some 
new light thrown on the fascinating subject of Mimetism. 
The writings of Mr. Darwin, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Bates 
have made even the non-scientific reading public familiar 
with the existence of wonderful external resemblances 
between animals belonging often to widely different 
natural orders ; resemblances which those writers have 
sought to explain on the theory of Natural Selection. 
Though the most remarkable instances of Mimetism to 
which attention has been drawn, are chiefly to be found 
in the tropics, scarcely less interesting examples are fur- 
nished by certain families of our own native Hymenoptera 
and Diptera: even in the vegetable kingdom we need 
not seek far for superficial resemblances which are not 
underlain by any corresponding similarity of organic 
structure. To trace these “echoes” in plant life (why 
“Plant azd Flower Life” we do not know), is Mr. Grin- 
don’s hobby and to say that he rides his hobby too hard 
is only what might perhaps be expected. There is only 
a very limited number of ways in which anthers can open 
to discharge the pollen and to call the dehiscence by 
recurved valves of the bay tree, an “echo” of the same 
method in the barberry, seems to us an instance of de- 
cidedly hard riding. Nevertheless the writer has col- 
lected together a large number of very interesting facts 
which will be of service to anyone who hereafter attempts 
a scientific explanation of these phenomena. The writer 
does not; we hope some one else will and he will then 
find this little book of some value. The style in which it 
is written, is not such as to commend it to the man of 
science. In his preface the writer says, “‘to be a philo- 
sophical treatise, the treatment must be esthetic.” When 
we find the flowers of plants described as “those sweet 
harp-strings which, vibrating for ever, preserve to us the 
melodies of ancient Eden and by which they will be 
floated down the ages yet to come,” the treatment of the 
subject may be esthetic ; we can hardly admit it to be 
philosophical. Would Prof. Huxley or Dr. Hooker recog- 
nise the following description? ‘‘ Every true naturalist 
enjoys a renewed puberty of the soul. While other people 
are young but once, he, like the cicada, in age recovers 
his spring-time. In this respect he is abreast of the man 
of genius, whose privilege, like that of the sunshine, is to 
weave as lovely a sky for the evening as for the morning.” 
A. W. B. 
British Lichens—Lichenes Britannict; scripsit ~ Rev. 
Jacobus M. Crombie, M.A. (London: L. Reeve and 
Co 1870.) 
Mr. CROMBIE is well-known as an indefatigable hunter 
after lichens and one who has added a considerable 
number of new species to the British flora. This little 
book contains a record of the habitat and distribution of 
the 658 species of lichens at present known as inhabitants 
of Great Britain and Ireland, together with references to 
the authorities where descriptions are to be found and 
the synonymy. The classification followed is that of the 
veteran lichenologist Nylander, to whom the work is 
dedicated and the whole is written in Latin. It ought 
to be in the hands of everyone interested in this branch 
of our cryptogamic flora. A. W. B. 
Chimie Organigue en 1868.—Rapport méthodigue sur les 
progres de la Chimie organique pure en 1868. Par 
L. Micé. Large 8vo. pp. 446. (Paris: Bailliére. 
1869.) 
WHEN we opened this work and found that the author 
had attempted, for the first time, what he truly designates 
as “neither an easy nor a glorious task” and that he in- 
tends his book to be a sufficiently concise and yet detailed 
annual report, a suitable ‘“ vade-mecum for a professor of 
‘high-class instruction,’ we formed expectations which 
