NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
231 
trouble. The outline sketches for blackboard reproduction, two of 
which, by the courtesy of Messrs. Newmann, we are able to give here, 
are excellent, whilst we do not doubt that the conventionalised studies 
will also serve their purpose. There are points in the text which would 
be the better for reconsideration before a new edition appears, such as 
calling monocotyledons “ inside-growers,” a translation of an obsolete 
error, and the application of the term “ haw ” to the bedeguar of the rose. 
Flora of the Island of Jersey. By L. V. Lester-Garland, M.A., F.L.S., 
Principal of Victoria College, Jersey. West, Newmann and Co. 
Price 6s. 
This is in many respects an excellent accomplishment of a much 
needed piece of work. Babington’s “ Primitiae Flora; Sarnicae,” published 
in 1839, was the hurried work of his youth, and contains many serious 
errors, so that a companion to Mr. Marquand’s recently published “ Flora 
of Guernsey ” was certainly due. In an area of only forty-five square 
miles the number of flowering plants, ferns and Characecs to be enume- 
rated is not large, nor is any subdivision of the area necessary. Mr. Lester- 
Garland gives us a fully adequate description of the island, its climate, 
and its present condition, illustrated by a most excellent map on the scale 
of two inches to the mile. He also gives us comparative lists of the 
Flora of the other islands of the group, from which it appears that, out 
of a total of 696 species in the Channel Islands, Jersey has 649, of which 
81 are peculiar to it. Unfortunately the author has to enumerate seven- 
teen species which have almost certainly disappeared from Jersey, and 
twelve from Guernsey, mainly as the result of drainage. Engler’s sys- 
tem of classification is adopted, which makes the book somewhat difficult 
to use or to compare with our other local floras, whilst the nomenclature 
is not open to the same charge of new-fangledness. 
The Humane Review for October contains, inter alia, articles on Thoreau 
and on the war against the sparrow. 
The Victorian Naturalist for August has some important notes on 
eels, dealing with the local species. 
The Animal’s Friend, vol. ix. Edited by Ernest Bell. Price 2s. 6d. 
The annual volume of our pleasingly written and illustrated con- 
temporary will make an excellent gift-book for the young. 
Received : Leicester Corporation Museum and Art Gallery : Thirteenth 
Report, 1890-1902 ; Report and Transactions of the Ealing Natural Science 
and Microscopical Society, 1902-3 ; First Annual Report of the Horniman 
Museum, 1901-2 ; Board of Agriculture Leaflet, No. 93 : Farmyard Manure ; 
The Irish Naturalist, The Animals’ Friend, Our Animal Friends, The 
Animal World, The Humanitarian, The Agricultural Economist, and The 
Commonwealth for October ; The Indian Textile, Mechanical and Electrical 
News for September. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
53. Is Nature Cruel? — In his criticism of my article bearing the above 
title, Mr. Price says that the lower animals are so preyed upon by their enemies 
that their bodies could not stand the strain without special help from Dame 
Nature to alleviate their labours. Is he sure that there is not an equal or even 
greater strain put upon the human race, which is also subject to the many 
anxieties and vicissitudes of life? 
Mr. Price tells us that the “instinct of self-preservation was probably taught 
the worm in his childhood by his parents,” and that as “ this teaching is always 
resorted to by the higher forms of animals, namely, to obey their parents and to 
