NATURE NOTES. 
136 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
A)i Introduction to Structural Botany (Flowering Plants), by D. II. Scott 
(A. & C. Illack, London, 1894, pp. 288, 113 figures). Practical Botany for 
Beginners, by F. O. Bower (Macmillan & Co., London, 1894, pp. 275, 13 
figures). Love of nature is mere idle affectation with a large class of people, 
who deceive themselves and no one else. They ought to take up art or music, 
where the pretence is less likely to be detected, and avoid setting a pernicious 
example of insincerity to a sincere folk. If examinations were not entirely 
hateful things, I should like to see a knowledge of Prof. Oliver’s Lessons, and 
of the two books cited above, made indispensable qualifications for entrance 
of plant-lovers to the Selborne Society. They contain the solid rock of know- 
ledge on which a lasting attachment to the plant world must be founded. So 
many are content with the reading of specious and fraudulent attempts to teach 
by mixing an ounce of fact with an intolerable deal of speculation— books that are 
the “ penny dreadfuls” and “ shilling shockers” of Natural History — that a more 
than ordinarily warm welcome must be given to the genuine article when it 
appears. These two books do for the study of the minute structure of plants the 
same kind of service that Prof. Oliver’s Lessons have rendered to the study of the 
external characters. They are clearly written in plain language, and consist of 
first-hand knowledge expressly arranged for this definite end. Such books are 
the grammar of botany, and differ from other grammars we know of in their com- 
plete lack of pedantry. G. M. 
A Monograph of the Stalactites and Stalagmites of the Cleave’s Cave, near Dairy, 
Ayrshire, by John Smith (London ; Elliot Stock, pp. 34, 36 plates). In the 
course of his archaeological explorations of this cave Mr. Smith made many notes 
and drawings of the calcareous incrustations he met with, and he publishes them 
in this volume in a somewhat extravagant fashion. He has some acute observa- 
tions that the geological student will be glad to have recorded. But there are 
other remarks that require further consideration on the part of the author, as for 
instance, that the supply of the carbonic acid to the water that dissolves out the 
lime in its passage to the roof of the cave is obtained mainly from the decomposi- 
tion of the vegetable covering of the soil ; that the quantity of the acid thus 
supplied depends on whether herbivorous animals are feeding on the surface, and 
worms and moles are burrowing below it ; that a section of a stalagmite read 
properly gives a history of the climatology — the winds, the rains, the temperature, 
the moist and dry weather of the cave district — for hundreds, perhaps for thou- 
sands, of years. The author reaches a poetic height when in laying down his pen 
at the close of his short essay, he tells us that in the cave “ the deposition of 
calcite is going on, enclosing in its grasp mosses, lichens, and Marchantia, which, 
whilst they are ‘ fresh and flourishing,’ may be said to be standing with their 
feet in these marble tombs.” W. C. 
We hope the authors of The Country Month by Month are not becoming care- 
less, but there are signs of this in the June volume. We have repetitions — “ the 
grasses themselves are in full flower” (p. 8), and “even the grasses are in full 
flower” (p. ii); “ the corn crowfoot may 'oe traced to the Moorish occupation of 
Spain” (p. 14), and “it has been suggested that it is to the Moors in Spain that 
we are indebted for the probably accidental introduction of this plant” (p. 17). 
Dr. Forster’s spurious antique is <|uoted as an “ old rhyme,” and Professor Buck- 
man’s song of “The Kerlock Plant ” is cited as an “old west country rhyme.” 
Anthriscus sylvestris is styled “Mayweed,” a name which it very seldom, if ever, 
bears, and which is likely to mislead ; and what is meant by saying that the even- 
ing campion has “little or no perfume”? Professor Boulger and the lady who 
chooses to be known as “ J. A. Owen” must not fall short of the high standard 
which they have set up in the earlier volumes of this delightful series. 
We have received the first instalment of Mr. W. F. Kirby’s European Butter, 
flies and Moths, which Messrs. Cassell & Co. are re-issuing in sixpenny monthly 
parts. The coloured plates lend an additional attraction to a work which cannot 
fail to be useful to many of our readers. 
