Cylchgronau Cymru

the achievement of producing them within a single season they would have been much better had time been less pressing. Some are very good, including many of the yellow flowers, the heathers on Plate 24, and the orchids on Plate 33. Some others are poor, failing to catch either the habit or colour of the plant. Plate 55 gives no hint that the Spotted Catsear is a much bigger flowered and alto- gether more magnificent plant than the Greater Hawkbit, and on plate 34 the magenta of Gladiolus and the clear orchid pink of the Red Helleborine are both reproduced as much too bright a red. The illustrations of such small plants as Waterwort and Mind-your- own-business, on Plate 27, are almost useless for identification, and it would have been better if part of the plant had been drawn in outline only, as has been done on some of the other plates. The line- drawings of grasses, ferns and similar plants near the end of the book are adequate, though not equal in quality to the drawings in C. E. Hubbard's Pelican book on grasses, or the illustrations by Miranda B0dtker for Nordhagen's Norsk Flora. As a small point of convenience it would have been better if all the plates had been grouped together at the end of the book. A useful map is printed on the end-paper, including many well-known botanical localities, though Widdybank Fell seems to have strayed to the wrong side of the Tees These criticisms do not detract from the merits of an excellent and welcome book that it invites them is in part its own recom- mendation. It should be invaluable to those who want to name the wild flowers, common or rare, which they meet, but do not have the botanical knowledege, or the time or inclination to use the more technical floras and the more experienced botanist will probably find a good deal to learn in it. The general layout is pleasing, and the price seems quite reasonable by present-day standards. M.C.F.P. THE PRESERVATION OF NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMEN. I. Inverte- brates. Reginald Wagstaffe and J. Havelock Fidler, M.A., Ph.D. with 139 text figures drawn by Elizabeth M. Begg. London H. F & G. Witherby Ltd. 42s. 1955. The ground strictly within the scope of this work has been adequately covered and illustrated. It is essentially a book of reference for the museum or institution. The excessive price, which is beyond the means of many amateur naturalists, is no doubt due in some measure to the elaborate layout which results in the equivalent of more than ten blank pages, not including margins of an inch or more surrounding the text. This book does not include any reference to the use of plastics in the preservation or display of insects, an unfortunate omission, as although of little interest to the taxonomist, it is one of the major developments in technique of considerable value to teachers.