l62 



Reviews and Book Notices. 



SEEDS FROM PEAT. 



From the same jom'nal we have received a reprint of a 

 useful paper ' On a Method of Disintegrating Peat and other 

 Deposits containing Fossil Seeds,' by Mrs. E. M. Reid, B.Sc. 

 The excellent work accomplished by Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S., 

 and Mrs. Reid is well known ; hence the present contribution 

 is most welcome. It has been found that by boiling peat with 

 about equal quantities of dehj^drated soda, it becomes quite 

 disintegrated, and the most fragile of seeds and other plant 

 remains are uninjured. In this way specimens of peat from 

 Hornsea, Bielsbeck, Kirmington and other places, which for- 

 merly were quite intractable, have been made to yield a large 

 series of plant seeds, etc. 



In ' Man ' for March, Mr. J. R. Mortimer contributes a note on ' The 

 Stature and Cephahc Index of the Pre-historic Men, whose Remains are 

 preserved in the Mortimer Museum, Driffield.' In this he shews that 

 the early long-headed, or dolichocephalic individuals were an inch taller 

 than the round-headed or brachycephalic individuals. 



Who were the Romans, by Prof. William Ridgeway, is the title of a 

 clever essay published by the British Academy (Oxford University Press, 

 44 pp., 2/6.) In it Prof. Ridgeway shews that the old idea that the Romans 

 were an homogeneous people, there being no ethnical distinction between 

 Patricians and Plebians has, at any rate, the advantage of simplicity ; 

 but as in so many problems of natural science, so in history does it often 

 occur that the more the matter is probed, the more complicated it becomes. 

 In his characteristically masterly manner, the author gives an account of 

 the early occupants of the Mediterranean region, and traces their growth 

 and change as time went on. 



The Care of Natural Monuments, by H. Corwentz. Cambridge 

 University Press. 185 pp. 2/6 net. This is a further contribution to 

 the subject dealt with by Prof. Baldwin Brown, in his book on ' The Care 

 of Ancient Monuments,' which was noticed in these columns when it 

 was published. The present volume is the outcome of a paper read by Mr. 

 Conwentz at the Leicester meeting of the British Association, and deals 

 with the preservation of all manner of natural features, giving special 

 reference to the methods in vogue in England and Germany. Evidently 

 they look aiter these things well in Germany. A collector of a large number 

 of specimens of the Lady's Slipper Orchis has there been sentenced to a 

 fortnight's imprisonment, notwithstanding that he had not been previously 

 convicted. The question of publishing ' distribution ' maps, etc. is also 

 discussed, and it is pointed out that soon after the publication of a map 

 shewing the nesting sites of rare birds, dealers flocked there in search of 

 eggs. A graceful tribute is paid to the work of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union, and the methods it adopts for preserving the fauna and flora, and 

 of recording the physical features of the county. A word of praise is also 

 meted out in favour of the authors of the maps and memoirs dealing with 

 botanical survey ; in which work Yorkshire has taken an active part. 

 Mr. Conwentz regards these as ' a standard of voluntary work, which has 

 not been attained in any other country.' The book concludes with the 

 quotation from Shakespeare — ' who is here so vile that will not love his 

 country.' Quite so, but there must be many such, or all the legislation 

 would not be needed. 



Naturalist, 



