1893] SOME NEW BOOKS 131 



the necessary reagents, and so to secure preparations killed in an 

 absolutely fresh condition. For study of the spicules he used a one 

 per cent, osmic solution diluted with an equal volume of sea-water. 

 After five or ten minutes in this, the specimens were rinsed in water 

 and placed in picrocarmine, in which they were allowed to remain for 

 one or two hours, and were then transferred to glycerine or to alcohol, 

 according as surface-views or sections were required. For spicules he 

 found this method more useful than nuclear stains, as these, from their 

 acidity, corroded the crystals. Certainly the exactness of the results 

 gained, as shown in the description and Mr Minchin's exquisitely 

 beautiful drawings, is proof of the excellence of the method. 



After exact description of the spicules and their mode of formation 

 in a series of types, the author passes to a general review of the nature 

 and condition of the spicule systems. He lays considerable stress on 

 the presence of the spicule sheath between the spicules and their 

 secreting cells, and cannot follow the view that spicules are formed in 

 protoplasmic nodes, and owe part of their structure to resulting ten- 

 sions. He regards the sheath as the remnant of a vacuole secreted by 

 the cell, in the interior of which the spicule itself appeared as a 

 concretion. The primordial form of spicule he takes to be a simple 

 nionaxon : the triradiate type he regards as being formed of three 

 monaxons fused at a point. Probably the original monaxons were 

 arranged as the sides of hexagon figures surrounding the pores. It 

 has been objected to a composite origin of the triradiate spicules, that 

 these behave optically as single crystals: yet Mr Minchin shows that 

 in actual ontogeny they arise from the very early fusion of these. The 

 quadriradiate crystals he supports Haeckel in supposing to be derived 

 from triradiate forms by the addition of a gastral ray. 



In the case of a memoir like this, which depends in every way 

 upon the exposition of elaborate details, it is impossible to do justice 

 in a short notice. We can only commend it to our readers as a strik- 

 ing and elaborate piece of work, and to the University of Oxford as a 

 singular result of the activity of that supposed rudimentary organ — 

 the endowment of research by fellowships. 



The Life Study of Buchanan White 



Tm. Flora of Perthshire. By Francis Buchanan W. White, M.D. Edited, with 

 life of Author, by James W. H. Traill. 8vo, pp. lx + 408, portrait and map. 

 Edinburgh : Printed for the Perthshire Society of Natural Science by W. Black- 

 wood & Sons. 1898. Price, 7s. 6d. 



THIS handsome and well-printed volume has a melancholy interest to 

 all lovers of British Botany. Dr Buchanan White died in 1894. 

 How much Perthshire Botany owes to his continued labours in the 

 cause of science can only he gathered from the study of this volume. 

 Ee Pounded the local Society. He had a large share in raising the 

 Perth Museum to its present position of supremacy amongst those in 

 county towns. The catalogue of his printed works in this volume 

 contains about 227 headings. Moreover although the editor has been 

 obliged to obtain the assistance of others in some of the larger more 

 critical genera such as Hieracium (and curiously enough Salix), 

 which were not written up by Dr White, still the work is to all 

 intents and purposes his work, and its details and accuracy are exactly 

 what one would have expected from him. 



