HARDVVICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



4!) 



A GOSSIP ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



Pressure of 



valuable literary 

 material has 

 prevented our 

 noticing many 

 scientific books 

 published dur- 

 ing the latter part of last 

 year. Rarely have we had 

 more valuable contributions 

 to natural science in such a 

 short space of time. Dar- 

 win's long-looked for work 

 Insectivorous Plants" 

 (London : John Murray) 

 showed us, happily, that the 

 keen and careful research of 

 its author has not yet shown 

 any signs of giving way, 

 nor have his powers of phi- 

 losophical generalization 

 been weakened. In this 

 volume, of nearly 500 pages, we have a series 

 of experiments on the so-called " carnivorous " 

 plants, aud many of the results seem ludicrous 

 when regarded from the old notion of how a 

 plant ought to behave. Indeed, we are learning 

 every day how arbitrary is our old classification, and 

 how little we have hitherto actually known about 

 organic objects. We need no longer point to the 

 lowest forms of animal and vegetable life as the 

 platform where both meet ; these " carnivorous " 

 plants behave as animals also, when it is to their 

 advantage to do so. In calm and philosophical 

 language, and yet in a style so admirably suited to 

 the novel facts and their meanings that the reader 

 willingly gives himself up to the subtle charm of 

 the book, Mr. Darwin discourses on the sundews 

 and the movement of their " tentacles," as he calls 

 the red hairs on the leaves; on Venus's Ely-trap 

 {Dioncea muscipula), and the irritation of its fila- 

 ments; on Aldrovanda vesiculosa, a plant which 

 captures crustaceans ; on the various species of 

 No. 135. 



Butterwort (Pinguicula) and Bladderwort (Utricv- 

 laria); as well as of other plants, such as Droso- 

 phyllum, Roridula, Byblis, &c, which affect " insec 

 tivorous " habits. Erom experiments made on these 

 various plants (all of which are related in the volume 

 before us), there can be no question as to their diges- 

 tive powers, and their capability of assimilating nitro- 

 genous food. Not long after the appearance of 

 " Insectivorous Plants " the reading world was sur- 

 prised by another work on "The Movement and 

 Habits of Climbing Plants," by Mr. Darwin (London : 

 John Murray). Such accurate industry has rarely 

 been equalled, and never surpassed. In this latter 

 volume we have those phenomena of the dissipation 

 of motion exemplified by numerous climbing plants, 

 which seem almost to partake of intelligence or 

 instinct. Leaf-climbers, tendril-bearers, and hook 

 and root climbing-plants of all kinds are minutely 

 described; the experiments made by Mr. Darwin 

 upon them almost convincing us that the force of 

 habit in certain of them is nearly analogous to 

 instinct. This book contains more than 200 pages, 

 and in lively interest is equal to that on Insec- 

 tivorous Plants. Had only these two volumes ap- 

 peared last year, they would have left their mark 

 on our scientific literature. And there can be no 

 doubt whatever they will largely influence the spread 

 of the doctrine of evolution, which alone among 

 extant theories is able to account for those singular 

 phenomena in plants which form the subject-matter 

 of these two treatises. 



In Geology and Physical Geography it is some 

 time since there appeared a work of such import- 

 ance as" Climate and Time," by James Croll (London: 

 Daldy, Isbister, & Co.). Mr. Croll's theories as to 

 the origin of the Glacial Period by astronomical 

 causes have long been held in high estimation by 

 our best geologists. In this large volume we have 

 the whole subject worked out in its geological rela- 

 tions, and a theory of the secular changes of 

 the earth's climate elaborated in the completest 

 manner. No geologist of any pretension can afford 

 to do otherwise than make himself thoroughly 



