3°o 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



evolutionary lines." There is ample room for this 

 work, and it cannot fail to be productive of good 

 work among many, who, with the old manuals, 

 would never become more than collectors of 

 "rows" for the cabinet. Chapter i. is full of 

 suggestions and should be carefully read by every 

 beginner. Chapter xxii. will also be of use to them, 

 for it includes the instructions for collecting and 

 preserving the material for study. This chapter 

 ought to be good, for Mr. Tutt is a collector of 

 experience and when at work is most indefatigable. 

 Our surprise is therefore great when we are startled 

 with the apparition of the obsolete "clap-net," on 

 page 359. Has Mr. Tutt ever used one? If so, will 

 he kindly tell us how he got his captures out of it 

 without injury? Again, why go on recommending 

 the rounded setting blocks which do more than 

 aught else to perpetuate the insular and unscientific 

 moth-catcher, against whom he rails. If we might 

 suggest, when he prints a further edition of this 

 work, which will, we feel sure, be at an early date, 

 he would leave out the whole of this block, which 

 has done bad duty for too long a time already. In 

 the new edition also an index would be a great 

 improvement. No one knows the value of time 

 better than the author, yet he leaves us to turn 

 over the leaves in despair of finding — say — where 

 he places the inevitable Cossus ; though we 

 eventually stumble across it on page 339, in its 

 right place among the Tortricidas. With regard 

 to the main plan of the book and the arrangement 

 of families and species, we agree with much of it. 

 The new Lepidopterology is only commencing, and 

 there will, for a long time to come, be much 

 floundering and plunging to get a permament 

 arrangement, but we think, so far as present 

 knowledge of the biology of the subject permits, 

 Mr. Tutt's plunges are in the right direction. 



Introduction to the Study of Fungi : Their Organo- 

 graphy, Classification and Distribution ; for the 

 use oj Collectors. By M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., 

 A.L.S. 370 pp., large 8vo, illustrated by 148 

 figures. (London : Adam and Charles Black, 1895.) 

 Price 14s. 



Whatever the more advanced students of 

 Cryptogamic Botany may say about Dr. Cooke's 

 new Dook when under their criticism with 

 regard to classification and the splitting of genera, 

 they will all agree that it is a good book, well 

 done, and one which will be for a long time to 

 come indispensable to the student of fungi. Such 

 should be the case, when we remember for how 

 long a period Dr. M. C. Cooke had charge of the 

 collection of fungi in the Kew herbarium. In 

 fact no book so thoroughly brings up the subject 

 to the modern condition of knowledge. Neither is 

 the work written in a manner calculated to deter 

 the advance of the beginner, for everyone knows 

 Dr. Cooke's pleasant and almost popular style. 

 In conformation of his own great knowledge of the 

 fungi, the author places at the end of each chapter 

 of the descriptive matter, a full bibliography 

 relating to its contents. Added to this advantage 

 to those engaged in research in the literature of 

 the subject, there is for the general student an 

 excellent glossary extending to four pages in length. 

 Chapter xxviii. is devoted to instructions for 

 collecting and preserving fungi. It will be found 

 most useful to all readers of the work. A perusal 

 of this chapter will save much valuable time, 

 when, as often occurs, the season for some par- 

 ticular species is short, and perhaps a good many 

 other different kinds are all out at the same time. 



In concluding this chapter, Dr. Cooke says, 

 " Finally, we would urge also upon the young and 

 inexperienced never to rest content with being 

 mere collectors, since the knowledge so obtained is 

 liable to become superficial and empirical ; on the 

 contrary, to examine for himself, as thoroughly 

 and completely as possible, every organism which 

 he acquires in his own selected group, and 

 endeavour to ascertain all that is possible of its 

 life-history. The whole history of one species, 

 worked out with perseverance and intelligence, will 

 present the key to a knowledge of many kindred 

 species, and always prove a valuable contribution 

 to science when the names of species are changed 

 or forgotten." Such is Dr. Cooke's admirable 

 advice, which many would do well to follow in 

 other departments of science as well as fungology. 

 Estimating the total number of described species 

 of fungi at 40,000, the author tabulates them in 

 divisions. With regard to the microbes, the 

 knowledge of them is so comparatively recent, 

 there being no standards for comparison that are 

 twenty years old ; it is doubtful whether the 

 present information on the subject will be found 

 by posterity to be very complete, though 689 species 

 of yeast fungi and bacteria are mentioned. 



Insect Life. By Fred. V. Theobald, M.A., 

 F.E.S. 246 pp. 8vo, with 54 illustrations. (London: 

 Methun and Co., 1896.) Price 2s. 6d. 



The sub-title of this little book states that it is a 

 short account of the classification of insects, and 

 we further find it is intended for the general reader 

 rather than the specialist. This, doubtless, 

 accounts for its very elementary character, which 

 will render it useful for school prizes, and village 

 libraries. The figures will help the work con- 

 siderably, being chosen, in most instances, from 

 familiar examples of the groups they illustrate. 

 In placing a figure of Cossus as the type of the 

 Tineae, the author is hardly wise, for he mentions 

 it in conjunction with clothes-moths. If some one 

 exclaims, on meeting with a fat caterpillar of the 

 goat-moth, " There goes one of those nasty things 

 which eat our clothes," we do not consider the 

 observer would be quite blameworthy, after study- 

 ing Mr. Theobald's work. 



Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire. By John Smith. 

 256 pp. demy 8vo, illustrated by 281 figures, and 

 map. (London : Elliot Stock, 1895.) Price 12s. 6d. 



Mr. John Smith, of Monkredding, has con- 

 tributed a useful summary of what is known in his 

 county of the remains of prehistoric man. He is 

 an ardent and painstaking observer and explorer, 

 both of the country and of the literature of his 

 subject. He has, as he states in his preface, 

 "traversed nearly 'every inch' of the county on 

 foot," and collected with his own hands hundreds 

 of prehistoric relics from caves, crannogs, shell- 

 mounds, rock-shelters. sands, gravels, etc." 

 Besides these, he writes about early man "as 

 revealed to us from cairns, stone- coffins, mounds, 

 long barrows, shell-heaps, remains of cannibal 

 feasts, cromlechs, rock-graves, camps, turf-spirals, 

 hill-forts, stockades, dinans, kits, military trenches, 

 Druidical circles, hut circles, vitrified walls, 

 monoliths, rocking-stones, treaty-stones, sanctuary- 

 stones, rock-sculpturings, cups and rings ; and by 

 flint, stone, jasper, agate, bone, horn, Druid's glass, 

 iron, bronze, brass, gold, silver, leather," etc. This 

 is a good long list, but it by no means exhausts Mr. 

 John Smith's book, which should at least have a 

 local sale. 



