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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
of the more prominent British forms; and appended to it is a tabular 
arrangement of genera, which, if carefully used, will enable the student to 
discriminate at least the genus of any ordinary Fungus that he may meet 
with. The illustrations are particularly good ; they consist of a considerable 
number of woodcuts and of twenty coloured plates, the figures in which 
are exceedingly pretty and very characteristic. The esculent species receive 
particular attention. 
GEOLOGY OF ENGLAND AND WALES.* 
T HAT Britain may fairly claim to be the birthplace and nursery of the 
modern science of geology, is no doubt due to some extent to the presence 
amongst us, during the last century, of men with special talents for geo- 
logical research, but it is quite certain that the geological structure of the 
country has had much to do with it. It is true that Hutton and his 
commentator Playfair laid down the principles which are now recognized 
almost everywhere as the true foundations of geology; that William Smith, 
by his stratigraphical researches, and especially by his recognition of the 
value of fossil evidence in the discrimination of deposits, laid the first stone 
of an edifice which all subsequent workers in the same department have 
merely contributed to finish ; but it may be questioned whether British 
geologists would have done so much, and held so prominent a position 
among the students of their science, had it not been for the peculiar advan- 
tages presented by their native island, and especially by its southern 
division, for the study of geological facts. Nowhere else in the world do 
we find so complete a series of stratified deposits brought together within 
so small a space. From the highest glacial and post-glacial beds down to 
the oldest fossiliferous deposits the British geologist may work his way 
practically without leaving his own country, and although his acquaintance 
with geology thus acquired may perhaps be a little one-sided, he will be 
quite prepared to appreciate and work into the framework of his personal 
knowledge those facts which are only revealed in other countries. 
Under these circumstances it is perhaps singular that we have so few 
books professing to be guides to the study of the geology of a country so 
interesting and important. It is true that most of our manuals of geology 
take the structure of this country as their foundation, and treat the geology 
of other parts of the world as more or less subsidiary to it, so that they may, 
to a greater or less extent, serve as such guides ; but they are generally deficient 
in that local definiteness, if we may use the expression, which would render 
them most useful to the student. The well-known “Outlines of the Geology 
of England and Wales,” by Conybeare and Phillips, published in 18 22, and 
to a certain extent and over a limited area the “ Geology of the Thames 
Valley,” by Professor John Phillips, which appeared in 1871, are the only 
* “The Geology of England and Wales: a Concise Account of the 
Lithological Characters, leading Fossils, and Economic Products of the 
Bocks; with Notes on the Physical Features of the Country.” By 
Horace B. Woodward, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of England and 
Wales. With Map and Woodcuts. London : Longmans, Green & Co. 
1876. 
