Reviews. 
^59 
Study of the Rocks. By F. Rutley. Second Edition. 321 pp., wood- 
cuts. Price, 4s. 6d. Longmans and Co. 
This work has established itself as the recognised English text-book 
on the subject. The author is petrologist to the Geological Survey, 
and has had an excellent opportunity (of which he has well availed 
himself) of becoming acquainted with the properties of minerals and 
rocks. The first portion of the book is concerned with the micro¬ 
scopical characters of rocks, and their behaviour in the field; in the 
succeeding chapters we have an admirable account of the method of 
making thin sections of rocks, preparing them for examination by the 
microscope; the optical properties of rock-forming minerals are then 
described, so that we learn how to discriminate them when examined 
by ordinary and by polarised light, etc. Mr. Rutley’s book is simply 
indispensable to every geologist. 
The British Moss Flora. By R. Braithwaite, M.D., F.L.S., etc. 
Part vii. Fam. vii., Dicranace^e (Part II.) Published by the Author, 
303, Clapham Road, London. Price 6s. 
This truly valuable work, if it makes slower progress than one would 
desire, at any rate places before the student of British bryology, in a 
collected form, all the additions that have from time to time been made 
to our Moss Flora since the publication of “ Bryologia Britannica,” 
in 1855. To many students this is most valuable help, as the records 
of new discoveries have hitherto been scattered among the pages of 
many varied works. In the present Part vii. several new species are 
described, and some of them for the first time as British plants. 
The descriptions are clear and graphic. The plates, of which there 
are six, contain illustrations of twenty-four species; these are excellent 
—superior in finish to any that have been given before. This work 
deserves the earnest support of every Natural History Society in the 
Kingdom, and should be subscribed to by all who take an interest in 
botany. It is only by the united help of all, that such a work can be 
made in any way a success. J. E. Bagnall. 
The Botanical Record Club: Phanerogamic and Cryptogamic. Phanerogamic 
Report for 1881-2. Manchester: Jas. Collins and Co. 
This report concludes the second quinquennial volume of the 
record of the Club’s labours. During the ten years beginning with 
1873 it has published 3,180 distinct New County Records of Phane¬ 
rogams (773 of them within the last two years), nearly all of which 
are vouched for by actual specimens. These are in addition to the 
localities embodied in the works of the late Hewett C. Watson, which 
“even at the outset mirrored with essential accuracy the phanerogamic 
vegetation of an island probably more fully known ” than any other 
equal area in the whole world. It is evident that the Club has 
