90 
REVIEWS—METEOROLOGY. 
on Nebulae are also of high interest. The coloured plates of Jupiter, 
Saturn, Mars, etc., are beautifully executed, while the delicacy of those 
representing nebulae and fixed stars leaves nothing to be desired. 
Elementary Botany. By H. Edmonds, B.Sc. 207 pp., 308 woodcuts. 
Price 2s. Longmans & Co. 
This work has been written primarily for the Science and Art Depart¬ 
ment’s examination in Botany, and, from long experience in preparing 
students for that examination, we can strongly recommend Mr. 
Edmonds’ book. The definitions are clear and terse ; there is enough 
to satisfy the real student, yet not so much as to perplex him. The 
illustrations are very numerous, well drawn, and appear to be largely 
original. There is a useful appendix of 100 questions, and a capital 
(combined) index and glossary. 
Heroes of Science: Botanists, Zoologists, and Geologists. By Prof. P. M. 
Duncan. 348 pp. Price 4s. S.P.C.K. 
The chief personages of whom this work treats are Linnaeus, Buffon, 
Pennant, Lamarck, Cuvier, Hutton, W. Smith, Murchison, and Lyell; 
but sketches of several less known worthies are added, and the whole 
is so welded together by the skilful pen and wide knowledge of 
Professor Duncan, that in this volume we have a general history of the 
progress of those sections of natural science to which it relates from 
the time of Aristotle, Pliny, and Theophrastus down to the present 
day. The book is a thoroughly readable one ; it has both a scientific 
interest and a human interest. In reading it we learn the progress of 
science by the efforts of individual workers, and our natural interest in 
the man is reflected upon his icork. This volume may be read with 
pleasure both by scientific tyros and by veterans. 
METEOKOLOGY OF THE MIDLANDS. 
THE WEATHEE OF FEBEUAEY, 1883. 
BY CLEMENT L. WRAGGE, F.R.G.S., F.M.S., ETC. 
The first part of the month—indeed until the 19th—was marked by 
a continuance of the cyclonic type of weather, with its accompanying 
rains, resulting floods, and saturated lands. The cyclonic depressions 
followed each other with wonderful rapidity, travelling along the 
western coasts of Ireland and Scotland, and skirting a high-pressure 
area existing over the Western and North-Western parts of the 
Continent which held its ground with great persistency. Hence, steep 
gradients, heavy gales, prevalent south-westerly winds, and mild 
weather, owing to the general course followed by the storm-centres. 
A new distribution of pressure came about on the 19th; and an 
anti-cyclone—probably a “ tongue ” from the great high pressure 
region north of the Sargasso Sea—stretched up from south-west, and 
ultimately encircled nearly the whole of the British Islands. The 
weather then became fine, the ground dried, and agricultural opera¬ 
tions and spring sowing were pushed on apace. 
