REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES 
195 
of in them as to over-minuteness of localisation, from the Selhornian point of 
view. In critical genera, such as A’ubus, Carex, Potamogelon and Hieracium, the 
work gains much from the assistance of the late Professor Babington, Messrs. J. G. 
Baker, Arthur Bennett and F. J. 1 lanbury. A good map and excellent accounts 
of the topography and geology of the county and of the abnormal flowering 
seasons, and distribution geographically and in altitude of the flora are prefixed. 
This introduction occupies 108 pages, and might well have been in smaller 
type, whilst the body of the Flora is, in our opinion, printed smaller than it 
should be. We also cannot help feeling some regret that Mr. Hart should have 
felt it necessary to adopt merely artificial divisions for the large county which 
came under his purview, based mainly upon the baronies, instead of some 
dependent upon natural features. An account of the meteorology of the county 
placed after the Flora and extending to 68 pages of large type, however valuable 
in itself, seems to us quite out of proportion ; and the plant-names and plant-lore, 
relegated to an Appendix, would, so far as it refers to Co. Donegal, have been 
better incorporated in the body of the work. The nomenclature adopted is in 
the main that of the Cybela Hibernica of 1866, which is now largely obsolete ; 
and we have noticed a considerable number of misprints in addition to those in 
the “ Errata.” County floras are generally many years before reaching a second 
edition, so that we the more regret these blemishes in what is, in spite of them, 
an indispensable companion to any of the yearly increasing number of tourists in 
the north-west of Ireland who take an interest in plants. 
Insect Lives as told by themselves. By Edward Simpson. With twenty-three 
illustrations. The Religious Tract Society. 8vo, pp. 128. Price is. 6d. 
This pretty little book contains nineteen autobiographies of insects, including 
representatives of all the thirteen chief orders of the class. We are not quite sure 
that this autobiographical method adds appreciably to the attractiveness of science 
for readers of any class or age ; but, with this qualification, Mr. Simpson seems 
to have done his work very well indeed. There is a brief introduction on insects 
in general, with an excellent table of the orders and their characters. As we have 
said, the types chosen are thoroughly representative : each species named has its 
scientific name appended, these names being both accurate and correctly spelt — 
which is too often not the case in books of this class ; and the idea of giving the 
whole life-history is an excellent one. We cannot discover from the story of the 
caddis- worm the exact answer to a query we recently received (p. 117) ; but had 
another of our correspondents had this book by him he would have had little 
difficulty in identifying the rat-tailed maggot. The illustrations are mostly old 
friends and one or two of them, such as that of cuckoo-spit, are not very good ; 
but as a whole the little book seems to us an excellent first book for young 
readers. 
Angling Days and an Angler’s Books. By Jonathan Dale (I. E. Page). 
Cheaper edition. Elliot Stock. 8vo, pp. 160, with six illustrations from 
photographs. 
This little volume is a reprint of some eight-and-twenty light and attractive 
sketches which originally appeared in The Angler. It is perhaps sufficient to say 
of them that their perusal made us long more than once to lay aside pens and 
papers, get a rod and go fishing, — with Jonathan Dale, or his book, for a 
companion. 
Voices of the Day; or. Thoughts on the Message of God in Nature. By C. S. 
Wardle. Elliot Stock, 1897. 8vo, pp. 140. 
This is a volume of pleasantly written sermons, evincing perhaps rather more 
of the enthusiasm for Nature of the artist or the poet than of the knowledge of 
the naturalist. How else can the following passage be explained? “From 
the algae which the small zoophytes and molluscs feed upon, to the ‘ leviathians ’ 
that inhabit the deep, naturalists of the present day know of 11,000 species of 
salt-water fishes.” We had marked for quotation an excellently worded outburst 
of indignation against cruelty to animals (p. 97) ; but, as we cannot give both, 
prefer to transcribe this passage on education (p. 23) : — “ We need more educa- 
tion out of doors. At least half the lesson-time our children now spend indoors 
ought to be spent in studying the flowers as they grow in the fields, the trees as 
