516 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



made up by the prodigious numbers of spores which were produced, and 

 which were so small and light that they could be carried great distances, 

 as we see in the mosses of to-day. This great number was further 

 ensured by the high development to which the spore-producing part 

 attained in the ferns, and then came specialization, and later still the 

 heterosporous types, and especially the seed-plants. In these, individual 

 precision has made up for numbers, and the natural result has been that the 

 reproductive system has been reduced to quite small proportions. The 

 publisher's work calls for nothing but praise, and the abundant use of 

 good figures increases the value of the book in a marked degree. A good 

 index is given. 



"British Oak Galls." By E. T. Connold, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 8vo., 

 169 pp., 68 plates, 17 figs, in text. (Adlard, London, 1908.) 10s. 6& 

 net. 



Mr. Connold in the preface to his previous work on " British 

 Vegetable Galls," published in 1901, says, " No illustrations are given 

 of Oak galls ; they will probably appear subsequently in a volume 

 devoted exclusively to Oak galls." This volume has now been published, 

 and is a welcome addition to the literature dealing with the galls of the 

 Oak. It can hardly be considered a companion work to the other 

 volume, as it is of a different size (octavo instead of quarto), and is 

 printed on the very objectionable heavily-clayed paper which is unfor- 

 tunately now so frequently used when half-tone figures are inserted in 

 the text ; but in the present instance the figures in the letterpress would 

 have come out very well on ordinary paper. The half-tone plates of 

 course require a very smooth paper. In the preface the author mentions 

 that there are fifty-four species of Cynipidae which produce galls on the 

 Oak. This is hardly correct, for some twenty-six of these so-called 

 species are merely the alternate generations of other species, which 

 reduces the number of true species to twenty-eight. We cannot 

 compliment the author on the arrangement of the work. It surely would 

 have been more convenient if, in the description of the insects, that 

 of the agamic generation had followed that of the sexual one, but we 

 find Andricus cirratus described on p. 53 and the galls figured on 

 plate xiv. ; and the agamic generation Aphilothrix callidoma on p. 77 

 and plate xviii. ; Teras terminalis on p. 137, and plates lvi. and lvii., 

 while the alternate generation Biorhiza aptera is on p. 98 and plate 

 xxxi. This muddle is due to the genera being arranged alphabetically. 

 It is mentioned in the introduction that " For several reasons it has 

 been found desirable to arrange the species in alphabetical order. In 

 departing from the classification set forth in my other work, 1 British 

 Vegetable Galls,' I have been animated with the desire to present the 

 subject in as simple a form as possible." 



The classification in the work alluded to had this virluc : all the 

 galls on the stems, leaves, &c. being placed together under the part of the 

 plant that they were found on, on finding a gall on a leaf one had 

 only to look among the galls formed on leaves to find a description and 

 figure of it. But in the present arrangement, unless you know the name 

 of the gall, which you probably do not if you have never seen it before, 



