NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. . 119 



Mr. Dixon was a man of letters, but essentially a man of science. 

 He was an authority on the flora and fauna of Western India. He 

 published several original papers on the less known plants of the 

 Bombay Presidency. But entomology was his special subject. In 

 his earnest desire to advance the cause of science he toured all over 

 India, both officially and unofficially, very often at great personal in- 

 convenience. He assisted Mr. W. L. Distant with considerable mate- 

 rial in preparing his volumes on Khynchota in the ' Fauna of British 

 India Series,' and also took a special interest in snakes, and made 

 important contributions to the knowledge of their life-history, 



Mr. Dixon was a man of a very kind and gentle nature and 

 genial temperament. He was loved and admired by all who had 

 anything to do with him. His sanctum was at all times open to 

 any student who honestly desired information, while he took almost 

 a paternal interest in his students. 



Mr. Dixon was a member of several scientific and learned 

 societies, both in Europe and in India. At congresses of zoolo- 

 gists or entomologists or botanists in India, Mr. Dixon would be 

 asked to contribute a paper, and he nearly always had some original 

 subject to bring forward. Actis cBvum implet non segnibus annis was 

 Mr. Dixon's motto, and his life was its concrete example. 



James Dixon. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Convergence in Evolution. By Arthur Willey, D.Sc, F.R.S., &c. 



John Murray. 

 This is an important contribution to evolutionary literature, 

 and is an example of the Darwinian method applied to the 

 further development of Darwinian philosophy. Convergence in 

 evolution is no new term, but it represented more or less an 

 idea; Dr. Willey has endeavoured in this small volume to make 

 it a reality. His thesis is " that convergence is neither identical 

 with homoplasy* nor with ceuogenesis,t but that it includes these 

 and something else besides. All homoplasy is convergence, but 

 all convergence is not homoplasy ; and the same dictum may be 

 repeated, mutatis mutandis, for cenogenesis." 



'''• " Homoplasy," a term proposed by Sir Eay Lankester to signify simi- 

 larity of form unaccompanied by community of pedigree. 



-j- " Cenogenesis" implies the origin of structural features by relatively 

 recent adaptation, in contrast with " palingenesis," or primordial adaptation ; 

 both terms proposed by Prof. Haeckel. 



