366 



REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 



A Memoir of John Michell, M.A., B.D., F.R.S., by Sir Archibald 

 Geikie, O.M,, K.G.B., etc. Cambridge : University Press. io8 pp. 

 In this memoir, Sir Archibald has ampHlied the presidential address 

 recently given to the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, which appeared in The 

 Naturalist. Our readers will be glad to have the opportunity in the recent 

 memoir of learning more of this grand old-time Yorkshire naturalist, 

 John Michell. 



A Flora of Epsom and its Neighbourhood, by Rev. T. N. H. Smith 

 Pearse. l^Ipsom : L. W. Andrews & Son, 107 pp. In 1899, the Head- 

 master of Epsom College began preparing a series of reports on the botany 

 of the area around the school, which appeared in the Annual Reports 

 of the Epsom College Natural History Society for the following twenty 

 \'ears. Those have now been brought together in the present little book 

 and form a valuable guide to the plants in the district. There is a good 

 map. 



Guildhall Memories by Alfred George Temple, F.S.A. London: 

 John Murray, 34 7 PP- • t6/- net. Mr. Temple's work at the London 

 (iiiildhall is well known to all educated Londoners and to man 3'^ in the 

 provinces. Himself an artist of no mean ability, he has during his long 

 term of service to the London Corporation, converted the Guildhall into 

 <jne of our most important National Art Institutions. He has a 'wheedle^'' 

 way which will appeal to the collector, and having the gift of a readj* writer 

 and a good memory, his present \'olume is one which can be read with 

 great interest. In his official capacit}' he has met with several ' great ' 

 l)eople, and many of his pages are occupied by quaint and other narratives 

 in reference to them — artists, writers, travellers, politicians and the nobility, 

 and we can quite Ijelieve that he has ' deemed it wise ' to make many 

 omissions, ' chiefly on personal grounds, in respect to li\"ing individuals.' 

 There are several illustrations, including one of the author and others of 

 his paintings. It is perhaps complimentary to Mr. Temple to know that 

 the present writer's son, a schoolboy, has read the book through with 

 keen interest, though, childlike, he considers some of Mr. Temple's paint- 

 ings are ' sloppy,' whatever that may mean ! 



Memoir of the Reverend Octavius Pickard-Cambridge, M.A., 

 F.R.S., by his son, Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge, M.A., Fellow 

 of Balliol College. Oxford : printed for private circulation, 191 S. 

 pp. 96, 8vo. It is in the nature of circumstances that the personality of 

 a scientific correspondent is usually hidden from us until after his death. 

 To many who read this book, and knew the subject of this memoir only 

 as our premier British arachnologist, it will perhaps seem strange to learn 

 that he was throughout his life a skilled musician, wrote verses that showed 

 a keen sense of humour, and papers on Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles and 

 Lepidoptera. This record of his life has the advantage of having been 

 written by one who is himself a naturalist, and hence able to appreciate 

 adequately his father's scientific work, of which he gives a full account 

 and includes what is an extremely useful and valuable part of the book — a 

 complete ' List of Writings," (which includes a number of references to 

 The Naturalist), classified according to subject. His earliest note on the 

 Arachnida appeared in The Zoologist for 1852, but previously in the same 

 journal and in the same year he had published a note on a ' White Willow- 

 wren.' His last publication was on ' Spiders,' appearing in 1914, in the 

 ' Natural History of Bournemouth and District.' He had a great belief 

 in the value of thorough work in definite districts and always liked to ha^ e 

 local collections to describe, as the writer can testify. He felt that it was 

 by getting to know everything about a particular district and its fauna 

 that a naturalist could keep in touch with, and contribute something to, 

 the wider biological questions which lie in the background of natural 

 history. The volume contains eight plates, which, together with the letter- 

 press, are excellently printed. 



Naturalist, 



