754 
Notices of Books. 
[November, 
valuable. Most readers will be able to find here useful informa- 
tion for which they might have elsewhere to make a long and 
tedious search. 
Elementary Lessons on Sound. By Dr. W. H. Stone. London : 
Macmillan and Co. 
The purpose of this little work, as the author informs us, is to 
“ furnish information intermediate between Acoustics and Music 
proper, supplementary to both ”• — a task which appears to be 
lairly fulfilled. In addition, and we suppose as a matter of course 
in the present day, it gives “ a concise outline of subjects re 
quired for examination. 
Papers, Proceedings, and Report of the Royal Society of Tasm- 
nia for 1877. Tasmania : Mercury Steam-Press Offic, 
Hobart Town. 
The Royal Society of Tasmania is aCtive, and is doing the rigit 
kind of work, — that is, work which can be better done in Ta- 
mania than in any other part of the world. One point, howevr, 
we cannot help noticing with regret. Of the eleven papers pib- 
lished, seven — and certainly not the least valuable — are dueto 
two of the Fellows of the Society, the Revs. J. E. Tenisn- 
Woods and W. W. Spicer. The death or removal of eithe.of 
these gentlemen would leave the Society, judging from presnt 
appearances, in a very unsatisfactory condition. We have geat 
pleasure in putting on record the aCtive and useful part pla'ed 
by the Governor and the Bishop. 
One of Mr. Spicer’s papers, “ Plants as InseCt-Destroyes,” 
gives a very complete summary of phenomena not geneally 
known. The fungoid genus Cordiceps, the species of whicbare 
parasitical on various beetles, wasps, and moths, is particuirly 
described. Among unscientific observers the opinion stillpre- 
vails that the inseCt, which of course ultimately perishes, is bing 
gradually metamorphosed into a plant. There is, howevr, a 
rumour that a phanerogamous plant springs, in an apparntly 
similar manner, from the decaying body of an inseCt. Accoding 
to M. le Compte d'Ursel, during his travels in various pais of 
South America he met with an inseCt which he describe; and 
figures as a thick, distinctly articulated grub, hard to the tuch. 
When about to die it buries itself some centimetres deep i the 
earth, and expands till it assumes the appearance of a ptato, 
