NA TURE 



[July i8, 1907 



admire Prof. Herdman's wide scientific outlooli — tlie 

 true naturalist's point of view— wfiicli may be in- 

 ferred, for instance, from tfiis sentence, " It is im- 

 possible, until a careful study has been made of each 

 case, to say which members of the fauna and flora 

 of an oyster bed are of most importance to its pros- 

 perity — probably none are wholly without influence for 

 j,'0od or evil, so closely interwoven in past history and 

 present function is the web of livini;^ nature." If this 

 wise saying were as widely accepted as it is certainly 

 true, biological science would find more generous 

 public support, and we should hear no more of im- 

 patient criticisms of scientific investigations which do 

 not yield an increase of rupees so rapidly as Prof. 

 Herdman's study of the Ceyloncse oyster beds has 

 done. It is fitting that the practical recommendations 

 should end with a beautiful plate of the life-history of 

 the pearl oyster. 



The second half of the volume is occupied with 

 eleven supplementary reports (xxxi-xli). Dr. Nelson 

 .^nnandale reports on the Cirripedia (ii species); 

 Prof. G. H. Carpenter on a new species of Halobates; 



'Fiu. 2.— Young larval Cestode (Telrarhynchus, sp.) encysted in connective 

 tiiisue of pearl oyster. 



JVIr. W. M. Tattersall on the Leptostraca, Schizopoda, 

 and Stomatopoda ; Mr. C. B. Wilson on an interesting 

 series of parasitic Copepods, including two new 

 genera; Mr. T. Southwell on the Anomur'a {48 species, 

 2 new); Mr. W. J. Dakin on the Foraminifera (131 

 ^pecies and varieties), which include Ramidina herd- 

 viani, n.sp., forming masses of calcareous tubules 

 varying in size from a hazel-nut to a small apple; 

 Prof. G. C. Bourne on Jousseaumia, an interesting 

 new genus of Eulamellibranchs commensal with the 

 corals Heterocyathus and Heteropsammia ; Messrs. 

 R. Standen and A. Leicester on a large number of 

 Molluscan shells; Prof. Herdman on the Tunicates 

 (64 species) ; Mr. R. Douglas Laurie on the Brachyura 

 (jo8 species, 15 new, three of which are referred to 

 new genera). 



The volume ends with a general discussion of the 

 taunistic results by Prof. Herdman. His expedition 

 "has made known 2615 species of marine animals from 

 the coasts of Ceylon' Of these 575 are described as 

 Tiew to science, and have required the formation of 

 ■OS new genera and three new families. About 

 250 of the Ccylonese species extend into the Malav 

 NO. T968, VOL. 76] 



region and 300 on into the Pacific. At least 240 are 

 known from the Red Sea, and 130 from the Mediter- 

 ranean. About 2S0 species extend southwards to the 

 Australian coasts, and a few are found elsewhere in 

 southern latitudes. Finally, 90 Ceylon species are 

 found also in the West Indian region, and may indi- 

 cate a closer connection by sea in a former period 

 than exists at the present day. Prof. Herdman makes 

 an interesting comparison of his collections with those 

 of the Investigator, with those from the Mergui 

 Archipelago and oil the coast of Lower Burma, and 

 with those from the Maldive and Laccadive Archi- 

 pelagoes. 



After reviewing his rich collection. Prof. Herdman 

 concludes in the following words : — 



" Such are the animate surroundings, including 

 both friends and foes, amid which the pearl oyster 

 habitually lives in the Gulf of Manaar, and seems, if 

 left in comparative peace, able to hold its own in the 

 struggle for existence ; but the balance, as we have 

 shown in previous parts of this report, is liable to be 

 seriously disturbed by three all-powerful factors : de- 

 vastating hordes of voracious fishes which come up 

 from the deeper waters and leave crunched shells anc 

 torn byssus in their wake ; storms, currents, and over- 

 washes of sand which may sweep away or bury a 

 promising bed; and lastly man, who comes periodic- 

 ally from above on his diving stone and clears the 

 bank of tens of millions of oysters, old and young. 

 The carnivorous fishes and the monsoons cannot be 

 controlled ; but to show that much can be done by 

 man to mitigate their influence, and to compensate 

 for the decimation necessarilv caused by his own 

 operations, has been the chief object of the present 

 report." 



THE DESERT AND THE SOWN.' 



SOME of the best books of travel nowadays seem 

 to be written by women. We may instance Mrs. 

 Bishop, Miss Durham, and now Miss Lowthian Bell, 

 who, in " The Desert and the Sown," has given us 

 a most delightful description of a wandering under- 

 taken by herself alone with native ser\'ants from 

 Jerusalem across Jordan to the Hauran and Jebel 

 Driiz. thence to Damascus and on by Horns, Hama, 

 and .\lcppo to Alexandretta. Miss Lowthian Bell's 

 route is, of course, not new. She has seen nothing 

 that has not been seen before, and has contributed 

 nothing new to our archaeological knowledge beyond 

 one or two short Arabic inscriptions. But this we do 

 not expect, nor had she any archaeological inient in 

 the shaping of her travels beyond the desire to see 

 the famous ruins of Roman Syria. The reason for 

 her journeyings is frankly set forth by her as pure 

 delight in the life of the Near East, and more 

 especially that of the desert. To " travel on where 

 travels above him the Mother of all the clustered 

 stars," deeming " the wild the sweetest of friends," 

 in the words of the Arab poet prefixed by the 

 author to her book (" yeraya al-wahshaha al'ansha 

 al-antsha, ^ca yahtadi behayithu alitadat Umm eii- 

 nejiimi esh-sliazvabiki "), was her desire, and she has 

 given us a good book describing what she saw in 

 her wandering. .As she says at the beginning of the 

 book, " To those bred under an elaborate social 

 order few such moments of exhilaration can come as 

 that which stands at the threshold of wild travel. "_ 

 Of all wild travel, surely the most exhilarating is 

 that in the Syrian desert. Here the Druze, with 

 his strange religion, descendant of the Old Man 

 of the Mountain and his "Assassins," still reigns in 



ByGp 



1907.) t 



ude I.ONVthian Hell. Pp. 



1 



I 



