698 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



tion in temperate regions of the specialised genus Viola which became well known 

 to the early botanists, and was made a type around which tropical genera were sub 

 sequently segregated. The tropical genera of Violacece are, however, simpler, and 

 with the genus Viola lacking they might well have been merged in another order, 

 e.g. Flacowtiacece. That is to say, " in this case as in many others our view of the 

 grouping of the plant kingdom is largely influenced by European bias." 



Enough has been said to indicate the character and the original and refreshing 

 mode of treatment adopted in this remarkable book. It is one which all teachers 

 of botany and all lovers of flowers would be glad to possess and one which, properly 

 used, cannot fail to do a great deal to elevate the standard of botanical teaching. 

 Dr. Church and the Oxford University Press are indeed to be congratulated on the 

 respective parts they have played in the production of this magnificent work. 



W. G. Freeman. 



Insectivorous Plants. By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. Revised by 

 Francis Darwin. [Pp. xiv. + 377.] (London : John Murray, 190S. 

 2s. bd. net.) 



With the publication of this volume Mr. Murray has brought us another step 

 nearer to being able to obtain the whole of the works of Charles Darwin at the 

 price of is. bd. each. We trust that he has set himself to the completion of 

 this task, and that, ere long, even the present few absentees will be numbered 

 amongst the members of this " Popular Edition." Insectivorous Plants was 

 originally finished in 1875, some sixteen years after the author made his first 

 observations on the subject. It affords an excellent example of Darwin's extra- 

 ordinary power of making extremely delicate observations with very simple 

 apparatus, and in the past has often roused admiration and enthusiasm in 

 young naturalists. It is of interest to recall Darwin's comments to Sir J. D. 

 Hooker on the book just before its completion {Life and Letters, vol. iii. p. 328) : 

 "You ask about my book, and all that I can say is that I am ready to commit 

 suicide ; I thought it was decently written, but find so much wants re-writing, 

 that it will not be ready to go to the printers for two months, and will then 

 make a confoundedly big book. Murray will say it is no use publishing in the 

 middle of summer, so I do not know what will be the upshot ; but I begin to 

 think that every one who publishes a book is a fool." The first edition, however, 

 was sold out almost at once ; and a second edition was issued and again re- 

 printed in the following month. Three further reprints followed, and now we 

 have this popular edition, an exact copy of the earlier more expensive issues, 

 bringing this classic within the reach of all. 



The Cell as the Unit of Life, and other Lectures. By the late Allen 

 Macfadyen, M.D., B.Sc. Edited by R. Tanner Hewlett, M.D., 

 F.R.C.P., D.P.H. [Pp. xvi. +381.] (London: J. & A. Churchill. 

 7s. bd. net.) 



This volume contains several series of lectures delivered by the late Dr. Macfadyen 

 during his tenure of the Fullerian Professorship at the Royal Institution. The first 

 series of five lectures deals with the morphology, chemical composition, and 

 general physiological action of the cell, and the second series deals more especially 

 with the metabolism, and the characters of the intracellular enzymes. The third 

 series supplements the two previous courses of lectures, giving some account of the 

 more recent methods of investigation and of technique, including the author's own 



