Notes and Comments. 267 



ENTERTAINMENTS. 



The members were well entertained. There were receptions 

 at the National Natural History Museum, at the Louvre, 

 at ' Autour du Monde,' at the Hotel de Ville ; there was the 

 Annual Dinner at the Hotel Moderne ; the Dinner of ' The 

 Order ' ; and a Conference with the French Museums Associa- 

 tion. In addition, opportunities were afforded of seeing Paris 

 at its best — the National Fete taking place during the meeting, 

 though on account of the hot weather the famous Military 

 Review at Longchamps, to which the party was invited, was 

 postponed. The Conference was quite successful, and the 

 visitors were much impressed by the prominent position 

 occupied by the Museums and Galleries in the life of the Gay 

 City. 



: o : 



Wayside Trees and How to know them, by Forster Robson, 



London : Thornton Butterworth & Co., pp. 125, 7s. 6d. net. Popular 

 books on trees are endless, and, as in this case, admittedly written for 

 those who desire to know the names of common species met with in a 

 country walk. It is to be hoped that some good will result from their 

 perusal, and that they will influence those who devote their youthful 

 energies to destroying the trees in our parks and woodlands. Mr. Robson 

 has aimed at helping those without knowledge of botany to name a tree 

 without preliminary study. This is done by grouping the species ac- 

 cording to the form of their leaves, by descriptions in simple language, 

 and by a considerable number of carefully-drawn figures of leaf forms, 

 twigs and buds, also excellent sketches showing the general habit of the 

 commoner species. There is an index in which the seventy -two species 

 described in the text are arranged in their families. 



The Handbook of British Lichens, by Annie Lorrain Smith, 

 F.L.S., and printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 

 is the title of another book on these fascinating plants, and well worth 

 the acceptance of young students in this branch of Botany. It is a por- 

 table guide to the determination of British Species, and based upon the 

 Monograph of British Lichens by the same author (see The Naturalist, 

 1918, p. 399). It is simply a ' boiled down ' edition of the Monograph, 

 which had 928 pages and 130 plates, costing 50/- ; to a handy pocket 

 book of 158 pages and 90 excellent illustrations of exceptional clearness 

 and good draughtsmanship, for 6/-. It has suffered nothing in the 

 ' boiling down' process, excepting the elimination of the Geographical 

 distribution of the species, which in the case of Lichens, owing to their 

 universal world wide distribution, is not of such vital importance as in 

 Flowering Plants controlled by climatic conditions. It has indeed 

 materially gained in flavour by the process, bringing into prominence 

 valuable generic and specific keys which enable workers to recognise 

 their plants easily. It also contains about a dozen new species not 

 included iii the Monograph, unfortunately omitting to state where 

 detailed description can be found, these new species being distinguished 

 by letters a or b after the serial number referring to the Monograph. 

 There is an introduction of 13 pages dealing with the Lichen plant as a 

 whole, of valuable information, and quite up to date, but we note a 

 slight omission in the Algae constitutents on page 4, wherein Dacty- 

 lococcus should appear as the associate of Solorina and Peltidea, and 

 Microcystis as that of Coriscium and Pyrenidiacese, though they appear 



1921 Aug. 1 



