Les Zoocécidies des Plantes d'Europe et du Bassin de la Mediterranée Tome i

Abstract

DR. HOUARD deserves congratulation on the successful accomplishment of his task of giving a systematic account of the European galls. Of recent years there has been great activity in the study of galls, which are of equal theoretical and practical interest, and this scholarly and well-arranged catalogue, brought up to date, will be widely welcomed. It is an admirable piece of work. The author gives terse descriptions of the galls, and refers (by name simply) to the gall-forming animals; he arranges the galls according to the families of plants affected; he supplies more than a thousand serviceable illustrations, a statement of the geographical distribution of each gall, and the indispensable bibliographical references. The second volume is in the press; the first volume deals with the galls of cryptogams, gymnosperms, monocotyledons, and the dicotyledons from Ranunculaceæ to Rosaceæ. The work will be a great boon to entomologists, botanists, foresters, and agriculturists. We hope that the author will not write finis to his magnum opus without discussing, as he is so competent to do, the fascinating biological problems which are raised by the study of galls, crowning his work of description with an> essay of interpretation.

Les. Zoocécidies des Plantes d'Europe et du Bassin de la Mediterranée. Tome i.

By C. Houard.Pp. 569; 1365 figures, 2 plates, and 4 portraits.(Paris: Hermann, 1908.) Price for both volumes, 40 francs.