REVIEWS 497 



economically. The subject of Agricultural Economics is thus one which, 

 taken in a wide sense, is of very considerable economic importance in the 

 welfare of nations, and a work upon it is therefore one which should be of 

 general interest as well as of profit to those intimately connected with 

 agriculture. Such a book is Prof. Boyle's Agricultural Economics. A wealth 

 of information on the various aspects of the economics of agriculture is 

 crammed between the covers of this book, the numerous problems of the 

 subject are clearly indicated and discussed, while the provision of lists of 

 references for further reading adds greatly to the value of the work. 



W. S. 



Germination in its Electrical Aspect. By A. E. Baines. [Pp. xxii + 185.] 

 (London : George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1921. Price 125. 6d. net.) 



The author opens the preface to this book with a homily addressed to 

 reviewers asking them " to remember that a great humanitarian question 

 is involved " and that " the fundamental truth " he has put forward "is of 

 too great importance to mankind to be passed over, or to be, to all intents 

 and purposes, shelved, by saying there is very little that is new in it." 



As far as this reviewer can understand, the "fundamental truth" is 

 that electrical stimuli are important factors in the life of organisms. A 

 special case of this fundamental truth is dealt with in this volume, namely, 

 the importance of electrical stimuli on germination of seeds. Now, in 

 establishing any " fundamental truth " in biology it is not generally regarded 

 as satisfactory to confine the experimental work to one or a few individuals, 

 but, on account of the differences between individuals of the same species, 

 to use large numbers of individuals. Again, everyone who has worked much 

 with plants under experimental conditions knows how easy it is to ascribe 

 results to one condition or a set of conditions when the decisive factor has 

 been overlooked. The author, although he is certainly aware of these 

 difficulties, in the opinion of the reviewer has not paid sufficient attention to 

 either of them in his attempt to establish his " fundamental truth " with 

 regard to germination. 



The following statements will probably appeal to the botanist : " In his 

 Textbook of Botany, Da\ds, writing of gymnosperms, cites the Selaginella, a 

 common greenhouse plant, as an illustration of sexual reproduction." " In 

 this the sporophyte bears male and female spores." " Botany should be a 

 fascinating study to the young. It has been made a heart-breaking one, for 

 the student has almost to master another language before he can become 

 familiar with the structure of a single blossom." " It has been impressed 

 upon me so frequently that the seed contains nutriment for the sustenance 

 of the seedling that I have expected to find constant shrinkage of the seed 

 substance as growth proceeded. Very many experiments have been made, 

 but I have not seen any evidence of such shrinkage." 



Perhaps sufficient comment on these statements is contained in another 

 quotation from our author : "In the studies in Electro-physiology which 

 foUow I am going to assume that my readers are acquainted with all there 

 is to be said upon the subject of botany." 



W. S. 



British Basidiomycetse. A Handbook to the Larger Fungi. By Carleton 

 Rea, B.C.L., M.A. [Pp. xii + 799.] (Cambridge : at the University 

 Press, 1922. Price 305. net.) 



The need for a handbook to the taxonomies of the Basidiomycetous Fungi of 

 Britain had become acute, not merely through the lapse of time since the 

 publication of Smith's Synopsis in 1908, but particularly owing to the rapid 

 advances in Mycology during recent years which have necessitated a revision 

 of the basis of classification. 



