BOOK NOTICE.
275
are of fair size as compared with those of many species of Mycetozoa,
measuring 6 mm. or more in length in the longer plasmodiocarps, they
harmonize so closely with the dead wood on which they develop as to be
easily overlooked. The plasmodium, or active feeding stage, is rose-
coloured or dull yellow, and the young sporangia are therefore more
conspicuous than they become later. In October, 1922, an old sawdust
heap of pine wood near Oxshott, Surrey, was found to be clothed with
an almost continuous sheet of Licea flexuosa, extending over an area
of several square yards ; those happy hunting grounds have now, alas !
been built over. G. Lister.
BOOK NOTICE.
The Natural History of Wicken Fen, edited by Prof. J. Stanley
Gardiner, F.R.S. Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge.
This is a valuable conspectus, written by various specialists,
of the fauna and flora of this famed remnant of primeval fenland,
which, in the editor's words, "is the one place from which the
"history of the changes in the fauna and flora of the wet lands
"of England can be deduced with reasonable exactness."
Separate chapters treat of the phytoplankton, the bryophytes
and the phanerogams, the sponges, planarians, leeches and
Oligochaetes, the crustacea, mollusca and spiders, the different
Orders of insects, and the vertebrate remains found fossil in the
fen ; there are also notes on the hydrogen-ion concentration
of the fen water and an account of the soil factors : incidentally
also, a good deal of historical matter is given.
The completed work is issued in six Parts, which have been
in progress since 1923, the concluding Part appearing only
in March, 1932. It constitutes a valuable work of reference
for visitors to Wicken Fen, as well as being a more or less
complete record of the natural history of the fenland. There is
a good map of the National Trust property in the district.
End of Vol. XXIII.