1897. SOME NEW BOOKS. 59 



French in Madagascar seem also to have hit upon a rich thing in 

 gold mines, if the quotation on p. 608 is to be relied on ; and it comes 

 from a work by Zelie Colville, who, from the extent to which Mr. 

 Keane quotes from her, is apparently the authority on the geography 

 of Madagascar. 



The Cell-Nucleus in Plants. 



Die Morphologie und Physiologie des pflanzlichen Zellkernes ; eine 

 Kritische Litteraturstudie. Von A. Zimmermann. 8vo. Pp. viii., 188, 

 with 84 figs, in text. Jena : G. Fischer, 1896. Price 5 marks. 



Many botanists will probably remember that some years ago there 

 appeared in the Beihefte zum Botanischen Centvalblatt a series of useful 

 abstracts of current cell-literature, from the pen of Dr. Zimmer- 

 mann. Since that time an enormous amount of new facts has been 

 accumulating concerning the cell-nucleus, and the object of the book 

 before us is to place its readers an courant with the present state of our 

 knowledge respecting this cell-constituent, together with such other 

 protoplasmic structures as may be directly associated with it. 



There is no doubt whatever as to the usefulness of the work. 

 The author has fulfilled the task he set before himself in a business- 

 like and thoroughly conscientious manner, and he well deserves the 

 thanks of all who wish to get an idea of what is doing in cytology. 

 At the same time, though it is, perhaps, rather ungracious to say it, 

 we cannot help finding the book rather dull. The reason lies in the 

 fact that the author, in his anxiety to omit nothing which may be 

 considered as in any degree important, has poured out torrents of 

 details, and these lie thickly strewn over his pages, with little or 

 nothing to indicate their co-ordinate or subordinate relationships one 

 with another. It is all very well to present, in a concise form, the 

 facts and the conclusions which their discoverers may have drawn 

 from them ; but if the reader is to get much of a living idea of what 

 it is all about, he must have already devoted a good deal of time to 

 the first-hand literature himself. In short, we confess the book 

 strikes us as being rather too much of a note-book — a good note-book, 

 it is true, tolerably complete, and containing very few mistakes withal, 

 but a note-book still. 



And seeing that Dr. Zimmermann has proved himself to be an 

 able investigator in the domain of cytology, it is the more to be 

 regretted that he has not seen fit to adopt the role of exponent a little 

 more definitely. No doubt it is premature to expect to found theories 

 which are likely to prove permanent, and possibly this consideration 

 may have had due — we had almost said undue — weight with the 

 author when he was outlining the plot of his book. 



But, after all, our criticism is chiefly directed against the method 

 which Dr. Zimmermann has decided to adopt ; for the way in which 

 he has followed it out we have little but praise. The clear and 

 succinct paragraphs, in which he deals with the memoirs of the huge 

 number of authors whose works he cites, will earn for him the 

 gratitude of many who are debarred, by lack of time or opportunity, 

 from consulting the originals. 



The book is divided into two sections. The first, or general, 

 part contains an account of: i. Methods of fixation, &c. ; 2. The 

 chemical composition (so far as it can be regarded as possibly 

 known, of the nucleus ; 3. The phenomena of Karyokinesis ; 4. The 

 physiology of the nucleus. The second part discusses the nucleus as 

 it occurs in the various groups of the vegetable kingdom, and the 



