THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 157 



the scientists to explain where they did come from. The 

 fact that mutilations deliberately made upon plants or animals 

 are not inherited proves nothing. It is not likely that useless 

 or harmful characters would be likely to be inherited. It is 

 upon facts such as these that Casper L. Redfield has based a 

 little book on "Human Heredity". In it he contends that 

 any theory of eugenics founded on the Darwinian theory 

 is wrong. His own theory is that the inherent power in 

 an animal increases as it is excerised and decreases as it is 

 neglected. Granting this, it is easy to see that the greatest 

 improvements must come from the descendants of the older 

 and more experienced individuals. An individual cannot in- 

 herit something its parents did not possess, hence, applying 

 these principals to the human race, the authur finds that the 

 older the parents at the time of birth, the likelier the children, 

 will be to become eminent. This proposition is backed up 

 by an imposing amount of evidence drawn from the geneology 

 of eminent men. The book seems to have added something 

 distinctly novel to the subject of eugenics and is well worth 

 a careful reading. It is published by the Heredity Publishing 

 Company, Monadnock Building, Chicago. 



Fruit-growing being one of the chief industries of the 

 State of New York, it is fitting that this commonwealth 

 should be foremost in providing information regarding the 

 various forms. To this end a series of sumptuous volumes 

 are being issued under the editorship of Dr. U. P. Heidrick, 

 each of which is devoted to a different group of fruits. In 

 this series have already been published volumes on the apples, 

 grapes, plums, cherries and peaches and a similar volume 

 on the pears is in press. Though designed to describe only 

 the fruits peculiar to the State, the author has wisely in- 

 cluded all other known forms that might possibly grow in 



