252 Book Notices. 



report on the subject to the Research Department of the Royal 

 Geographical Society. His conclusions are as follows : — ■ 

 ' I commenced my observations on this subject with a leaning 

 towards the theory that many downland ponds were dew-ponds ; 

 that is, that they were replenished principally from dew. I 

 confess I should have wished to have been able to prove that 

 dew was an important factor in filling the ponds. But I have 

 been led to believe otherwise, and I retract anything which I 

 have said in this direction as having been founded on insufficient 

 data. Very rarely, indeed, does dew ever form on the surface 

 of ponds, and rarely, I believe, on the puddled margins ; and 

 if we continue to use the term dew-pond, we must remember 

 that the word must be used here in the widest sense as including 

 any form of condensation out of the atmosphere. Rain is 

 undoubtedly the all-important replenisher of these, as of all 

 ponds which are not fed by springs. It is almost with a feeling 

 of regret that I abandon the theory of dew-filled ponds. The 

 mystery surrounding the quiet invisible formation of dew has 

 a fascination for me, as for most people, but the results of 

 greater knowledge must prevail, and the dew which waters our 

 downland grass and the corn on our dry fiint-bestrewed down- 

 land fields cannot longer be held to have any important bearing 

 on the " mystery," which is no longer a mystery, " of the dew- 

 pond." ' 



Wild Flowers and How to Identify Them, by Hilderic Friend. London : 



Robert Culley. 63 pp., i/-. 



This neatly-bound and well-iUustrated volume, by one of our con- 

 tributors, will prove a Friend indeed to anyone wishing to become familiar 

 with our common wild flowers. By means of a series of coloured plates 

 and many illustrations in the text the reader is made familiar with the 

 more attractive of our wild flowers. There is also a useful table for the 

 purpose of identification, and blank leaves for notes. 



Catalogue and Field-Book of British Basidiomycetes up to and in- 

 clusive of the year 1908. By Dr. M. C. Cooke, A.L.S., V.M.H., etc. John 

 Wheldon & Co., 2S Great Queen St., W.C. Price 2/6. 



During the last 20 years many additions have been made to the Briti.sh 

 list of the higher fungi, largely owing to the activity of the Mycological 

 section of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. \ handv and concise list of 

 species brought up to date was needed. Our thanks are due to Dr. Cooke 

 for meeting this necessity by so useful a work, which has the benefit of 

 his very wide and ripe experience. The work is further useful in counter- 

 acting a recently published alteration of the nomenclature attached to 

 each species, and in the restoration of the system adopted by Prof. P. A. 

 Saccardo, in his ' Sylloge Fungorum,' now universally accepted. 



The Catalogue is got up in a convenient pocket size — io|-X4 in. The 

 96 printed pages, with blank page opposite each for additions or notes, 

 includes Alphabetical List to Genera. Tiic work was privately printed at 

 Huddersfield, and only a limited number of copies was .struck off. — C.C. 



Naturalist, 



