40 GENETICS [BoT. Absts., Vol. IX, 



251. LuNDBORG, H. Svenska folktyper, bildgalleri ordaat efter rasbiologiska principer 

 och med en orienterande oversikt. [Swedish types, portrait gallery arranged on race-biological 

 principles and with a short general survey.] 33 X 51 cm., 236 p., 6 colored tables. 1920. — On 

 pages 5-12 Swedish folk and race-types are treated and pages 233-235 contain a chapter on 

 "The study of Swedish folk-types, an important part of family and native-place studies." 

 The other pages contain a portrait gallery, generally with 4 figures on each page. The ma- 

 terial is disposed in the following groups: (1) Lapponians, (2) Norrbotton-Finns and Finnish 

 types among the Swedish population in Sweden and in parts of Finland with Swedish inhab- 

 itants; (3) pure northern types and Swedish mixed types in Sweden, Finland, and at Runo; 

 (4) descendants of Walloons in Sweden; (5) Swedish Jews; (6) Gypsies; (7) vagabonds, crimi- 

 nals and such; (8) as an appendix photos are given of a number of foreigners who have been 

 living in Sweden for a shorter or longer time but have been punished or expelled because of 

 vagabondage or criminality. Some of these have left descendants in Sweden. — K. V. Ossian 

 Dahlgren. 



252. MacBride, E. W. The inheritance of acquired characters. Sci. Prog. [London] 

 15:392-405. Jan. 1921. — An argumentforLamarckian factor in evolution, based upon a variety 

 of considerations. There is a lack of evidence to support Weismann's insistence upon separa- 

 tion of "germ-plasm" from "soma-plasm" in ontogeny. All nuclei produced by division of 

 egg nucleus are potentially alike; what undergoes differentiation is not nucleus but cyto- 

 plasm.- — The mutations appearing in cultures of Mendelians "practically all represent defic- 

 iencies and pathological aberrations totally unlike the marks which separate natural species 

 from one another." Experimental studies of selection in pure lines indicate that selection 

 alone, when the environment remains constant, is powerless to effect evolution. Inheritance 

 of effects of use and disuse appears as the only alternative. — Arguments from palaeontology 

 and embryology are cited in favor of Lamarckian view, an example of the second being the 

 inheritance of curvature of abdomen of hermit-crab, even if latter is prevented from finding 

 a spiral shell. Considerable space is devoted to Kammerer's experiments, which the author 

 does not consider discredited by attacks of Bateson and others. Experiments of Guyer 

 and Smith are likewise stressed, and much significance is attached to the latter's suggestion 

 that the degenerating eyes may themselves originate anti-bodies which in turn affect the 

 germ-cells. If this view is accepted, says MacBride, the cardinal principle of the theory 

 of the inheritability of acquired characters is conceded. — F. B. Sumner. 



253. Mann, Harold H. Variation in the flower of Jasminum malabaricum Wight. Jour. 

 Linnean Soc. London Bot. 45: 155-158. 1920.^ — Author reports observations on variability of 

 calyx and corolla and on degree of correlation between numbers of their lobes. Corolla 

 lobes ranged from 5 to 12 with average of 7.75 lobes and coefficient of variability of 12.2 per 

 cent. Calyx teeth ranged from 4 to 8 with average of 5.52 lobes and coefficient of variability 

 of 3.52 per cent. No relationship was observed between calyx-lobe number and position on 

 branch. Different plants may show different modal values. There was only a very slight 

 tendency for number of corolla lobes to increase as number of calyx lobes increased, and 

 vice versa, since coefficient of correlation was only -1- .1148. — James P. Kelly. 



254. Marshall, Lucile. Contributions of the plant breeder to the vegetable garden. 

 Amer. Bot. 27: 8-17. 1921. — A brief account of 23 vegetables responding to the methods of 

 plant and seed breeders in their effort to improve vegetable seeds. — S. P. Nichols. 



255. Matthaei, R. [German rev. of: Goldschmidt, Richard. Mechanismus und 

 Physiologie der Geschlechtsbestimmung. (The mechanism and physiology of sex determina- 

 tion.) 251 p., 113 fig. Gebriider Borntriiger: Berlin, 1920.] Zeitschr. Allg. Physiol. 19: 

 52-53. 1921. 



256. Matthaei, R. [German rev. of: Ruzicka, Vladislav. Restitution und Vererbung. 

 Experimenteller kritischer und synthetischer Beitrag zur Frage des Determinationsproblems. 

 (Restitution and heredity. Experimental critical and synthetic contribution to the problem 

 of determination.) Vortr. u. Aufsiitze iiber Entwicklungsmech. Org. 23. 69 p. 1919.] Zeitschr. 

 Allg. Physiol. 19: 48-49. 1921. 



