266 Reviews and Book Notices. 
numbers in Co. Louth by Mr. P. H. Grierson, and detected by 
Mr. Taylor on examining a large series of Irish shells sent for 
authentication by that gentleman. The species is of interest as 
occurring at nearly sea-level in Ireland, the nearest European 
localities being at elevations of 8000 feet in the Alpine and 
mountainous regions of the Continent. This occurrence 
exemplifies well the soundness of Mr. Taylor’s views in 
regard to the position and discontinuous distribution of what 
may, for want of a better word, be described as ‘ weak ’— 
z.e., not dominant—forms of life. Mr. Taylor’s paper is to 
appear in the next number of the ‘Irish Naturalist,’ with 
illustrations, and the problems involved are discussed fully. 
— 
The Microscope and how to use it. London, R. Sutton. 160 pp., 
3/- net. This is the third edition of Mr. T. Charters White’s well known 
handbook for beginners. It has been revised and enlarged, contains a 
chapter on ‘Marine Aquarium,’ and another, by Dr. M. Amsler, dealing 
with ‘Staining Bacteria.’ The book is thoroughly practical, and can be 
recommended. It is illustrated. 
Beasts Shown to the Children, by P. J. Billinghurst, described by 
Lena Dalkeith, 103 pp. T. C. and E. C. Jack, Edinburgh, 2/6. This is 
one of the series already referred to in these columns, though the coloured 
plates in the present volume are not nearly so successful as those dealing 
with birds and plants. The drawing of the ‘whale’ in cotton-wool water 
might be a design for a frieze, and the sea gull’s nest facing p. 84 is the 
nicest thing in sea-weed frills that we have seen for some time. 
Introduction to Plant Ecology, by Prof. G. Henslow, M.A., F.L.S., 
&c., London. E. Stanford. pp. viii. and 130. 2/6. 
Prof. Henslow opens this well printed little book by some rather 
unfortunate remarks. He points out that he wrote two books, one in 
1888, and another in 1895, on Ecology without knowing it, ‘for this term 
had not been invented and is still unknown to our teachers of botany in 
schools.’ If we grant the first, it should be noted with reference to the 
second statement, that Haekel used the term in 1866; again the numerous 
books and papers since written, mostly by teachers of ‘botany, go to disprove 
the third assertion. That it might, with advantage, be more widely known 
is admitted, and it is the object “of this book to supply the deficiency. The 
first five chapters are devoted to a general consideration of ecological 
questions, in which Prof. Henslow criticises, unnecessarily we think, certain 
well-known books and teachers. These chapters also contain much that 
might well be left to the usual text books. If these features had been 
omitted, more space would have been available for fuller treatment of plant 
associations and their ecological characteristics, the chapters dealing with 
this part of the work being based on the well-known Scotch and Yorkshire 
papers. Too meagre are the accounts of a heather moor, water and marsh 
plants, the distinctive types of woodlands and their associations, the 
significance of zones of cultivation and the like. The chapter on plant 
surveying is too general, and reference should have been made to the more 
exact and detailed methods already published, and definite examples given. 
Too often exotic examples are quoted when equally geod illustrations “could 
be given from British species, while the chapter on floral ecology would 
have been improved by the inclusion of results obtained by Willis, Burkill, 
and others. The chapters on ‘Natural Selection and Evolution’ are 
characteristic of the author who shows himself an eager exponent of ecology 
and much of what he has to say is interesting. 
Naturalist, 
