BOOKS. RECOMMENDED 145
An Introduction to Palaobotany. Chester A. Arnold. 1947.
Introduction to Plant Ecology. A. G. Tansley. 1946.
Tour on the Continent 1765 by Thomas Pennant. (Ed.) G. R. De Beer. 1948,
These from God's own County. S. L. Bensusan. 1947.
British Regional Geology.
London and Thames Valley. R. L. Sherlock. (Second edition.) 1947.
East Anglia and adjoining Areas. C. P. Chatwin. (Second edition.) 1948.
Guide to the Essex Record Office, Pt. 2. Estate, Ecclesiastical and other
deposited Archives. F. G. Emrnison. 1948.
Howards. 1797-1947. Messrs. Howards and Sons. 1947.
MAPS
Geological Map of Great Britain prepared by the Geological Survey. 1948.
Sheet 1. Scotland and North of England.
Sheet 2. England and Wales.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED
British Plant Life. W. B. Turrill. The study of Botany has long ceased
to be merely a matter of identification and classification. The present cen-
tury has seen a vast extension of the study of the genetics, ecology and
biology of living plants, the results of which are only available to the student
who is prepared to search the various publications of the learned societies.
Dr. Turrill gives a concise picture of the present state of this knowledge,
indicating the value of such work and suggesting numerous further lines of
study in a manner which should serve to attract the student and direct his
feet along the correct path.
A very complete glossary is provided together with a comprehensive
bibliography and a list of the more important county and local floras. This
last of itself should be a sufficient spur to members of the Club, showing
that Essex lacks an up-to-date County Flora, a lack which it should not be
beyond the powers of the Club to rectify in the near future.
The Last Stronghold of Sail. Hervey Benham. What could be more
appropriate than a book about sailing in Essex waters written by an Essex
man? To enjoy this volume it is not necessary to know the winding, muddy-
banked creeks and waterways of the extensive Essex coast. But those who
do will find again the tang of the salt-laden air in every page; will see the
wild expanse of sky merging into the sea and the saltings; will hear the
wild cry of the redshank, the barking of the gulls, the rattle and creak of the
stiff gear and the frapping of halyards against bare poles.
Hervey Benham gives an account of the sailing vessels used and developed
in the waters for various purposes, now alas obsolete or fast becoming so.
This account is throughout enlivened with details of the men who built,
owned and sailed the vessels; fanners, coastwise traders, carriers, oyster
dredgermen, wreckers, colliers and yachtsmen. We are given an insight into
their lives and homes without which the book would be incomplete. Finally,
there is a chapter on wildfowling and the bird life of the Blackwater estuary
by J. Wentworth Day which no Essex ornithologist should miss.
Bernard T. Ward.
.