REVIEWS 507 



degenerated to something akin to superstition. One of the most striking features 

 of the results at the Woburn Fruit Farm is the refutation they provide of 

 many of the cherished doctrines of the professional and amateur pomologist. 



The prolonged life of most fruit trees, and the lapse of time before they come 

 into bearing, render them much less amenable to experimental treatment than 

 annual crops with which results are obtained in a single season. For this 

 reason it was not until recent years that in this country or abroad any serious 

 attempts were made to provide scientific justification for the common practices 

 of the fruit-grower. It was in pursuance of this aim that demonstration plots 

 were inaugurated at Woburn to show the deleterious effects of so-called " bad " 

 planting ; plots which in the outcome exhibited better growth and gave a better 

 yield than the "controls." 



Repetition merely confirmed these results and led to the recognition that 

 not only were many of the niceties of "good" planting a work of supererogation, 

 but that the beneficial effect of "bad" planting was mainly due to the 

 "reprehensible" practice of tightly ramming down the earth immediately around 

 the transplanted tree. 



Similarly we learn that pruning tends to diminish both vigour and yield, 

 though mechanical considerations may render pruning essential. Or again, 

 bastard trenching, so much favoured by fruit-farmers, appears to be attended 

 with a very dubious benefit to trees, whilst it is positively harmful to bush fruit. 



The results obtained in experiments on the influence of crop on crop and on 

 insecticides and fungicides, if somewhat less sensational, are often at variance 

 with common practice. 



It would be impossible, even briefly, to summarise the many aspects of fruit- 

 growing dealt with in these pages. Most of the conclusions are already familiar 

 from having appeared in the Woburn Reports or the various periodicals, but the 

 authors have wisely brought these together into what is not only a convenient 

 form but also an extremely fascinating narrative. In future editions the chapter 

 devoted to an elementary account of the structure and functions of plants should 

 be carefully revised. Such statements as that " cortical cells contain granules 

 of green colouring matter, called chlorophyll," or that the so-called cuticular 

 transpiration ceases with the formation of the cuticle, are errors which could be 

 avoided without materially lengthening the description. 



With respect to the text as a whole, whatever criticisms may be levelled at 

 the experiments or their interpretation the onus undoubtedly rests on those who 

 uphold time-honoured practices to demonstrate by experiments, on properly con- 

 trolled lines, that conditions do exist under which those practices are beneficial. 



It is with the greatest confidence that we can commend this volume to those 

 interested in fruit-growing either in its theoretical or practical aspects. For the 

 latter especially, its pages will repay the most careful perusal. 



E. J. Salisbury. 



The Living Cycads. By Prof. C. J. Chamberlain. [Pp. xiv + 172, with 91 

 figures in the text.] (Chicago : University of Chicago Press. Price 

 $1.50 net.) 



There are probably few groups of plants that can vie with that of the Cycads 

 in their appeal to the imagination either of the biologist or the general reader. 

 Peculiar in their distribution, embracing some of the world's rarest species, and 

 with a geological record that can be traced back to the Palaeozoic Pteridosperms 



