BOOK NOTICES. 



63 



this enormous amount of matter condensed into the briefest sym- 

 bohsm, room is found for a sufficiently complete list of definitions, 

 and for one or two miniature chapters on vegetable ph3'siology, in 

 wiiich the maximum of information has been packed into the 

 minimum of space. The whole appears to have been compiled with 

 great accuracy, and, so far as vre have verified it, with a singular 

 freedom from slips. Opinions of course must always difTer as to the 

 specific value of varying forms, and the statement that there are only 

 forty-three British species belonging to the order Rosacea, is not 

 deduced from the last edition of the London Catalogue. Exceptions 

 also can always be found to any briefly generalised negation, such, 

 for instance, as that none of the Orchidese are found on ' cold 

 mountains'; but these are points hardly worthy of notice. Taken 

 altogether, the compilation gives an admirable conspectus of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom, and is likely to be of much use to all who ha^^e 

 to teach, and all who have to learn, systematic botany. It is printed 

 on thin, but serviceable paper, and the only suggestion which we can 

 make is that it might also be issued in larger type and on a larger 

 sheet. — H.E.F. 



Transactions of the Leeds Naturalists' Club and Scientific 

 Association, 1886. Leeds ; pp. 88 ; 2s. 6d. 



For the last seven years the Leeds Naturalists' Club has not been 

 dormant, still less latent, for the reports bear witness of quiet work 

 within its own circle, but to the outer world, at least, it has been 

 silent. The issue of a volume of Transactions is not only evidence 

 of a considerable accession in membership, but also, we trust, an 

 earnest of increased activity in scientific research. Besides the 

 Sixteenth Annual Report, the volume contains abstracts of papers 

 and other proceedings, which have been condensed, no doubt very 

 fairly, but in some cases with a brevity that is more than tantalising. 

 It seems a pity that the space given to the Diary of Natural History 

 observations, most of vrhich are of the smallest scientific value, could 

 not have been occupied by verbatim reports of some of the papers, 

 as, for example, that of Mr. Roebuck on his specialty, or Mr. Paul 

 on Fertilization. The construction of such a diary as that which 

 occupies fifteen pages of the Transactions may be an admirable 

 exercise in observation for young people, but it is hardly worth 

 pubhcation in a volume of " Transactions." We are puzzled to 

 discover what purpose is meant to be served by such records, for 

 instmce, as that Lychnis diurna (evidently a favourite with the 

 diarists), was observed on the nth, i6th, and 23rd of May; that 

 Stellaria holostea was gathered on May i6th and 26th, or that 

 Dactylis glo?nerata \w^<~> seen in flower on June 27th, and Lapsana 



Feb. 1887. 



