22 
REEVE AND CO.’s PUBLICATIONS. 
NEW SERIES OF NATURAL HISTORY FOR 
BEGINNERS. 
# # # A good introductory series of books on Natural History for the use of 
students and amateurs is still a desideratum. Those at present in use have 
been too much compiled from antiquated sources ; while the figures, copied 
in many instances from sources equally antiquated, are far from accurate, the 
colouring of them having become degenerated through the adoption, for the 
sake of cheapness, of mechanical processes. 
The present series will be entirely the result of original research carried to its 
most advanced point ; and the figures, which will be chiefly engraved on steel, by 
the artist most highly renowned in each department for his technical knowledge 
of the subjects, will in all cases be drawn from actual specimens, and coloured 
separately by hand. 
Each work will treat of a department of Natural History sufficiently limited 
in extent to admit of a satisfactory degree of fulness ; a closer study of a limited 
subject being both more interesting, and preferable as a mental discipline, than a 
superficial acquaintance with a wider range. 
The following are now ready:— 
BRITISH BEETLES ; an Introduction to the Study of our 
Indigenous Coleoptera. By E. C. Rye. Crown 8vo, 16 Coloured 
Steel Plates, comprising figures of nearly 100 Species, engraved from 
Natural Specimens, expressly for the work, by E. W. Robinson, and 11 
Wood-Engravings of Dissections by the Author, 10.?. 6 d. 
BRITISH BEES; an Introduction to the Study of our Na- 
tural History and Economy of the Bees indigenous to the British Isles. 
By W. E. Shuckard. Crown 8vo, 16 Coloured Steel Plates, containing 
nearly 100 Figures, engraved from Natural Specimens, expressly for the 
work, by E. W. Robinson, and Woodcuts of Dissections, 10?. 6 d. 
BRITISH SPIDERS ; an Introduction to the Study of the 
Araneidai found in Great Britain and Ireland. By E. F. Staveley. 
Crown 8vo, 16 Plates, containing Coloured Figures of nearly 100 Species, 
and 40 Diagrams, showing the number and position of the eyes in various 
Genera, drawn expressly for the work by Tuffen West, and 44 Wood- 
Engravings, 10s. 6 d. 
BRITISH FERNS ; an Introduction to the Study of the Ferns, 
Lycopods, and Equiseta indigenous to the British Isles. With Chapters 
on the Structure, Propagation, Cultivation, Diseases, Uses, Preservation, 
and Distribution of Ferns. By Margaret Plues. Crown 8vo, 16 Coloured 
Plates, drawn expressly for the work by W. Fitch, and 55 Wood-Engrav- 
ings, 10s. 6 d. 
