278  Reviews—The Life and Works of Prof. Oswald Heer. 
interesting sketch of the early years of the great paleobotanist. 
His love for nature began in his early youth, which was passed in 
the little Alpine village of Matt, of which his father was the clergy- 
man. He first studied the flora and fauna (more especially the 
insects) of the districts near his home, and subsequently extended 
his researches to the higher regions of the Alps. He became an 
intrepid and skilful climber, and the numerous botanical and ento- 
mological discoveries made by him in these little accessible regions 
attracted the notice of many well-known scientific men of his native 
land. In deference to his father’s wish, he had, however, to give 
up his inclination for scientific pursuits, and betake himself to the 
University of Halle to prepare for a clerical career. After returning 
to Switzerland, he declined the offer of a life-long appointment as 
clergyman, and preferred rather to accept a temporary engagement 
to arrange and determine the large entomological collections of 
Hscher-Zollikofer ; thus definitely undertaking a scientific career. 
The second and third parts of the volume are devoted to a critical 
review of Heer’s scientific work, and a sketch of his personal 
character ; the former is more especially interesting since the matters 
treated are still of the first importance. Dr. Schréter refers first to 
Heer’s work on recent plants, more particularly regarding their 
geographical distribution, both generally and in the different regions 
of the Alps. Late in life, Heer again turned his attention to the 
origin of the Alpine flora, as shown in his posthumous treatise 
“Die nivale Flora der Schweiz.” Equally valuable are his researches 
on the ancient history of still existing plants, and his paper on the 
plants of the ancient lake-dwellings (Die Pflanzen der Pfahlbauten) 
is a genuine classical treatise. Heer’s many other botanical works 
cannot even be mentioned here. 
Then comes a chapter, written by Dr. Stierlin, giving a review of 
Heeyr’s contributions to the knowledge of recent and fossil insects. 
It is an interesting fact that Heer treated the beetles of Switzerland 
from precisely the same points of view as the plants; regarding not 
only their systematic position, but their geographical distribution as 
well. He was therefore very familiar with the laws of the geogra- 
phical distribution of plants and animals when he commenced his 
studies on the ancient floras and insect faunas of the globe. His 
remarks on the habits and intellectual powers of a species of ant 
from Madeira (Ccophthora pusilla) give great credit to his keen 
faculty of observation. 
Heer’s contributions to fossil entomology are indeed astonishing. 
They will be best understood from the fact that at the time he began 
his work only about 200 species of fossil insects were known; and 
he was able from Switzerland alone to describe more than 1000 
fossil species, of which 143 were from the Liassic strata of Scham- 
belen, and 876 species from Tertiary beds of other parts of the same 
country. Besides these, he described a great number of species from 
the Tertiary deposits of Radoboj and Aix; from the Rheetic beds of 
Scania, as well as from the Arctic regions, etc. Any one who has 
read the ‘“ Primeval World of Switzerland” will call to mind the 
