38 



By the appearance of this volume, the botanists of Philadel- 

 phia are provided with a pocket companion for their journeys 

 afieid more satisfactory than any available for other parts of our 

 country. There is little room, apparently, for improvement in 



later editions, save in the insertion of newly acquired data and 

 the addition oj" a good map of the region. 



John Hendley Barnhart. 



Lord Avebury's Notes on the Life History of Britisli Flowering Plants* 



This work is not intended to be in any sense a manual for the 

 ■determination of the species inhabiting the British Isles, but in- 

 stead, taking up the flora in Bentham's sequence and in general 

 with his specific limitations, it furnishes descriptions of the vari- 

 ous plants in such a way as to emphasize the points in their 

 structure which bear most directly upon the peculiar problems 

 presented by their life conditions. 



The spirit of the author is perhaps best indicated by the con- 

 clusion to the introduction in which he says : " To many, indeed, 

 systematic botany is the most interesting department of the 

 science ; to others it is the entrance and outer court of the tem- 

 ple ; and when we realise that for every shade of colour, for all 

 the exquisite beauty of flowers, for the endless difference in the 

 size, forms, and textures of leaves, for the shape and colour of 

 fruits and seeds, there are, if we only knew them, good and suf- 

 ficient reasons, nature seems endowed with new and vivid life, 

 with enhanced claims on our love, wonder, and devotion." 



From this point of view a great mass of facts is presented 

 dealing especially with such subjects as fertilization and seed dis- 

 tribution but also including almost every line of inquiry con- 

 nected with plant life. 



Although the flora dealt with is so limited in range, the book 

 will be of interest and value alike to students and nature-lovers 

 in every locality. This is especially true of the introduction, 

 wherein a concise but comprehensive general discussion of its 

 many problems supplies a most readable summary of the subject. 



* Avebury, Lord (John Lubbock). Notes on the Life History of British Flow- 

 •ering Plants. 8vo. Pp. i-xxiii + 1-450. /. 1-352. London and New York, 

 1905. The Macmillan Co. 



