THE WORLD OF THE SOIL. By Sir John E. Russell. New Naturalist No. 35.

(1957) 1975 5th edn reprint. 8vo (150 x 222mm). Pxiv,237. Colour and b/w photograph plates, b/w line illustrations, maps, and bibliography. Green buckram, spine titled in gilt.

Detailed discussion of the soil and what lives in and on it. This book "gets inside this strange world and analyses its structure and how it has developed; the ciculation of water and gases which give the soil an atmosphere and a succession of climates quite different from those of the air above. It deals with the varied forms of life made possible or impossible by the varied conditions and so to a concept of the soil providing habitats of differing and frequently contrasted characters". Useful and interesting.