HAHDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



125 



habits and polymorphism is of high practical value. 

 The behaviour of many of these lowly - organized 

 objects only shows that their modes of generation 

 are microscopic, instead of being literally crypto- 

 gamic. The relations of plants, which we half 

 figuratively and half literally term " sexual," are 

 not limited to the true flower-bearing plants, but 

 actually seem to exist in stronger force in those 

 forms we have usually regarded as specially 

 unsexual. The germination and growth of many of 

 the micro-fungi are frequently analogous to those 

 of the mosses and ferns, and, in the animal world, 

 to the larval, chrysalid, and imago stages of the 

 lepidoptera, or the " alternations of generation " 

 of the annelida. Of these Dr. Cooke treats most 

 lucidly, and his descriptions are richly aided by the 

 numerous cuts. Polymorphism is one of the most 

 curious and recently investigated characters of the 

 micro-fungi. The same species appears parasitic 



Fig. "6. Germinating pseudo- 

 spore {/>) of Coleosporiuin 

 Sonchi ; s, », secondary 

 sporules. From Cooke's 

 "Fungi." 



Fig. 77. Germinating pseudo- 

 spores of Fhrugmidium 

 bulbosum. 



on different plants, under well-marked generic 

 names, whereas they are only stages of development 

 of the same plant. The long-held belief of farmers 

 that the "cluster-cups" of the berberry-bushes 

 had something to do with mildew, according to the 

 experiments of De Bary, seems to have a scientific 

 basis, and to be directly connected by intervening 

 stages. Dr. Cooke has candidly and clearly given 

 the exact state of all these questions. Brevity 

 forces us to conclude with a strong and hearty 

 recommendation to all of our readers who are 

 students of fungi or of cryptogamic botany gene- 

 rally to procure this book for themselves. 



Sir John Lubbock has already had his name 

 associated with so many various subjects, and has 

 done such good work in each, that nobody capable 

 of appreciating it will be surprised he now appears 



as the author of one of the " Nature Series " 

 volumes on " British Wild .Flowers, considered in 

 relation to Insects." (London : Macmillan & Co.) 

 But if any one is desirous of understanding the 

 wonderfully mutual inter-relationships which exist, 

 even between our own commonest insects and 

 commonest flowers, and of the reasons now sug- 

 gested of "the colour, streak, and stain" which 

 give to our wild flowers their specific characters, 

 let them read this book. No more charming work 

 on any subject was ever published. Those who 

 heard Sir John's happy lecture at the Belfast meet- 

 ing of the British Association, will fiud the same 

 thoughts amplified and more scientifically and 

 detailedly cast. The illustrations are numerous 

 and apt, and assist the student materially. It is 

 impossible for any botanical student to do without 

 this little work, if he wishes to know the meaning 

 of the floral mechanism of plants. 



" Valleys, and their Relation to Fissures, Frac- 

 tures, and Faults " (London : Triibner & Co.), is 

 the title of a work by G. H. Kinahan, M.R.I. A. 

 It is an elegant volume, of nearly three hundred 

 pages, illustrated, on one of the debatable subjects 

 in geology. As senior geologist of the Irish 

 Geological Survey, Mr. Kinahan has had many 

 years' experience in the field. He is a well-known 

 physical geographer and one of our best lithologists, 

 and few are better able to speak on the subject he 

 has selected than himself. The most popular views 

 of denudation now extant are those which refer all 

 sculpturing of the geographical features of the 

 dry land to sub-aerial processes, particularly with 

 reference to the relative hardness and softness of 

 contiguous strata. Mr. Kinahau's book is devoted 

 to enumerating instances where valleys are not 

 the result of such conditions, but were initially (at 

 the least) commenced by faults and fissures. So far 

 he is on the side of the Duke of Argyll, as against 

 that of Prof. Geikie. The volume literally bristles 

 with well-arranged facts, mostly conclusive ; although 

 we think the inferences are sometimes too rapidly 

 drawn. There can be no doubt that sub-aerialism 

 had pushed its conclusions too far, and this is the 

 temptation for the other side to do likewise. But 

 there can be as little doubt as to the value of Mr. 

 Kinahan's work as there is to its efficient author- 

 ship ; and we are convinced that it will long hold 

 its place both in physical geography and geology as 

 one of the best on this important subject. 



At length we have a capital biography of a man 

 whose name will always be associated with the early 

 history of Geology— Sir Roderick Murchison. We 

 hardly need say that it is written by his faithful 

 friend and disciple Prof. Geikie, and now makes its 

 appearance iu a handsome, well-printed, two-volumed 

 form. Type, paper, and illustrations (with the excep- 

 tion of the portrait of Prof. Sedgwick, which is a 

 grim-looking object, not at all suggestive of its 



