400 Reviews and Book Notices. 
Of a more serious kind, though none the less charming in point of style 
and also as regards illustrations, is Prof. J. A. Thomson’s work on The 
Biology of the Seasons (Andrew Melrose, 384 pp., 10/6 net). 
Perhaps the following extract from the author’s preface will best 
‘explain the purport of the volume. ‘From Gilbert White’s evergreen 
“Natural History of Selborne”’ to Prof, L. C. Miall’s “‘ Round the Year’ 
: there has been a succession of Naturalist Year-Books. But 
the aim of this volume is at once more general and more intimate. It is. 
an attempt to get at the underlying principles.’ To shew the remarkable 
versatility of the author, we quote the following chapter headings from 
Part I., the ‘ Biology of Spring’; ‘Impressionist Sketch,’; ‘ Young 
Things’; ‘Tadpoles’; ‘The Eel-Fare’; ‘Caterpillars’; ‘ Rhythms in 
Plant-Life ’; ‘ The Return of the Birds’ ; “ Migration,’ ; ‘ Re-awakenings ” 
‘Spring Flowers.’ Each of the essays is a gem. The plates are from 
clever paintings by W. Smith, and are mounted on tinted paper. 
From Messrs. G. Routledge & Sons we have received a good volume, 
produced on similar lines to Massee’s ‘ British Fungi and Lichens,’ referred 
to in our October issue. The book is entitled British Trees, including the 
finer shrubs for garden and woodland, by the late Rev. C. A. Johns, and 
E. T. Cook (285 pp., 7/6 net). It is practically a new edition of the 
Rev. Johns’ ‘ Forest Trees of Britain,’ brought up-to-date, and with 
chapters on the shrubs added. Every British tree and shrub of import- 
ance is illustrated and described, and there are 56 plates (24 being 
coloured), as well as illustrations in the text. The book is all that it 
professes to be. 
Wild Flowers of the British Isles, by H. Isabel Adams (W. Heinemann, 
197 pp., 4to., 62 coloured plates, 30/- net). 
This magnificent volume is a companion to that referred to in this 
Journal for December, 1907, pp. 434-5, and has all the charms and ad- 
vantages of its predecessor. The 62 coloured plates are obviously the 
work of an accomplished artist as well as a botanist, and we should like 
to congratulate authoress and publisher alike on the appearance of the 
second volume. The present work includes the orders from the Cam- 
panulacee to the Aracee, thus, with the previous volume, completing the 
whole of the British wild flowers, with the exception of water plants and 
trees. Should any of our readers wish to make a useful Xmas present that 
would certainly be appreciated by any educated person, we should re- 
commend these two volumes by the talented authoress, Isabel Adams. 
British Birds’ Eggs, with twenty coloured plates, by A. F. Lydon, is 
evidently intended for the young collector of eggs; a subject we should 
hardly have expected the publishers, The Society for Promoting Christian 
Knowledge, to have encouraged. On these twenty quarto plates, there 
are ‘ eggs [drawings of!] representing all the indigenous birds of our islands, 
all the regular summer visitors that nest here, besides 140 out of the 
miscellaneous, chance, rare, and irregular spring and winter migrants. 
There are also four or five lines of descriptive letterpress to each egg, 
giving particulars of the bird’s nest, position, date, and number of eggs. 
The author hopes ‘ that by having a faithful representation of one normal 
specimen of each species a key is furnished by which identification may be 
made comparatively easy.’ But they are not ‘faithful representations,‘ or 
else the eggs in the British Museum, which were selected, must be very un- 
usual in colour, and occasionally soin shape. Asa matter of fact the plates 
are useless for the purpose of identification of any but the most obvious 
species, and the way in which the eggs are represented, overlapping each 
other, only adds to the confusion, For example, plate 8, which is sup- 
posed to shew representative eggs of ten different species of duck, might 
almost be a drawing of a clutch of hen’s eggs. We defy anybody, ornith- 
ologist or egg collector, to guess what even half the eggs are on any one 
of the plates. In fact, they cannot be ‘re-Lydon’! 
Naturalist, 
