i8 



SCIENCE GOSSIP. 



NOTICES BY JOHN T. CARRINGTON. 



Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and 

 Common Farm Pests during the year 1895 - ^'^''^' 

 Methods of Prevention and Remedy. By Eleanor 

 A. Ormerod, F.R.Met.Soc, F.E.S. 166 pp. royal 

 8vo, with 30 illustrations and 2 plates. (London : 

 Simpkin Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., 

 Limited, 1896.) Price is. 6d. 



We have, elsewhere, on several occasions pro- 

 tested that our Government, as represented by the 

 department over which Mr. Chaplin now presides, 



HippoBOSCA EQUINA, — I and 2 nat size and magnified from life ; 3, pupa removed 



from puparium. Puparium,nat size and magnified. (From Miss Ormerod's 



" Injtmoiis Insects.") 



should allow Miss Ormerod to go on unaided year 

 after year at what must be considerable sacrifice, 

 doing what most enlightened Governments do for 

 themselves. Here has this lady, single-handed, 

 been for more than twenty years trying to 

 instil some elementary knowledge of their 

 insect foes into British farmers and fruit- 

 growers. The feeble leaflets issued by " the 

 department " are a remarkable contrast to 

 the excellent reports of Miss Ormerod, the 

 nineteenth of which is now before us. If 

 these were circulated by Government aid 

 through all village schools in rural districts, 

 and intelligently explained by the teachers, 

 much good might be attained. A leading 

 feature of the report just issued is an article 

 on flies injurious to horses and cattle. It is 

 accompanied by two finely-drawn plates of 

 the foot of forest-fly (Hippobosca equina) from 

 two aspects. There are also figures in the 

 text, two of which we reproduce to show the 

 admirable manner these reports are illus- 

 trated. In consequence of the last military 

 manoeuvres having taken place in the New 

 Forest, where Hippobosca is frequently 

 troublesome to horses, some attention has 

 been drawn to these flies. Miss Omerod 

 has collected much information about these 

 pests, some being of scientific value to 

 dipterists, as well as to horse owners. 



A Contribution to our Knowledge of Seedlings. By 

 the Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., 

 F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D. 288 pp. crown 8vo, with 

 282 figures in the text. (London : Kegan Paul, 

 Trench, Triibner and Co., Limited, 1896.) Price 5s. 

 This is a popular edition of Sir John Lubbock's 

 well-known larger work on the germination of 

 plants, and forms vol. Ixxix of " The International 

 Scientific Series." So little is understood of the 

 reason why the forms of cotyledons should difter so 

 greatly from the subsequent leaves of plants, that 

 any knowledge attainable for unravelling this 

 mystery of nature should be valuable. The 

 subject is so easily studied, and so deeply hidden 

 are the causes of variation in form of the cotyle- 

 dons, that the circulation of this new popular edition 

 of Sir John's work will open up a wide field of 

 investigation. The comparative study of the earlier 

 stages of plant -life among many persons who 

 previously saw little interest in seedlings will be 

 much extended by the issue of this book. It is 

 needless to add how plainly 

 written, well arranged, and 

 encouraging to early investiga- 

 tors are the pages in the new 

 edition of " Seedlings " by this 

 versatile author. 



The Royal Natural History. 

 Edited by Richard Lydekker, 

 B.A., F.R.S. Illustrated by 

 72 coloured plates and 1,600 

 engravings . ( London and New 

 York : Frederick Warne and 

 Co.) Published in is. parts. 



Part 31 of this fine work is 

 out, and with it we leave the 

 vertebrates and enter some 

 description of the various 

 classes of invertebrates. In- 

 deed, the last few pages of 

 Part 30 were also devoted to 

 them, commencing with the 

 sea-squirts or Ascidians. In 

 Part 31 are two brilliantly coloured plates of insects, 

 and the title-page and index to Volume v. In this 

 number also are some orders of insects, Hymenop- 

 tera, Diptera, and a portion of the Lepidoptera. 



.Foot of H. equina, showing double claws, central process 

 and long prickly bristles. A portion of the claw of H. maculata. 

 (From Miss Ormerod's " Injuriotis Insects.") 



