REVIEWS. 
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this is one great factor of his success, for astronomical mathematics 
are “ caviare to the general.” The illustrations are very good, the 
plates, executed by the Woodbury process, being especially successful. 
A chart of the planet Mars, from drawings made at Madeira in 1877 
by that enthusiastic astronomer Mr. N. E. Green, forms a capital 
frontispiece to the book. W. J. H. 
Rudimentary Astronomy. By Main and Lynn. Third edition, 1882; 
pp. 176; woodcuts. Published by Crosby, Lockwood, and Co. 
Price 2s. 
This is pre-eminently a book for the practical astronomer. Written by 
the late Radcliffe Observer, and revised by a Greenwich Observatory 
assistant, the descriptions of astronomical instruments and their 
methods of use are accurate and precise. In addition to chapters on 
the Moon, Planets, Fixed Stars, Spectrum Analysis, etc., there is an 
admirable account of the (to young astronomers) puzzling phenomena 
of refraction, parallax, aberration, precession, and nutation. 
W. J. H. 
The Botanical Exchange Club of the British Isles; Report for 1881, 
pp. 45 — 60. Manchester : Jas. Collins and Co. 
How are the mighty fallen ! This report contains the verdicts, passed 
by certain authorities, on the specimens gathered by the members of 
the Club during 1881. The minute study of varieties, now called 
species, of many plants occupies the attention of our British 
botanists at the present time, and develops so many differences of 
opinion, bluntly expressed, that the study of these pages reminds one, 
in parts, of a Billingsgate scolding match. There is no doubt that a 
great deal of light can be thrown upon the process of evolution 
generally, and upon the means whereby existing species of plants have 
been developed from their ancestral forms in particular, by the dili¬ 
gent comparison of the interminable varieties of Ranunculus, Viola, 
Rubus, Rosa, Pyrus, Carduus, Hieracium, Euphrasia, Erythrsea, 
Mentha, Runiex, Salix, Potamogeton, Chara, etc. A few attempts to 
glean in this field have already been made. But what can be gained 
by such intellectual diversions as the following (p. 52):—“ Hieracium sp., 
A. Ley. ‘ I hesitate between gothicum and crocatum,' J. G. Baker. 
‘ I believe horealef C. C. Babington. ‘ This is H. corymhosumf J. T. 
Boswell.” Or this (p. 55):— '^Symphytum sp., A. Ley. ^Orientate,' 
J. G. Baker. ‘ It looks like peregrinum in a weak state,’ G. C. Babing¬ 
ton. SS'. asperrimum,^ J. T. Boswell.” Again, but not quite so bad, 
because one of the disputants is missing (p. 51):— Helosciadium 
Moorei ?, S. A. Stewart. ‘ The Moorei which I place under inundatum,' 
C. C. Babington. This is not at all like my II. inundatum, var. 
Moorei. It is a luxuriant state of ochreatum, approaching the normal 
form of II. nodijlorum,' J. T. Boswell.” Such a reductio ad ahsurdumoi 
