62 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



numbers of animals and plants which have become extinct, must be 

 supposed to have failed to ' make good ' in the competitive struggle." 

 Mutation, hybridization, and the investigations associated with 

 Mendel dealing with dominant and recessive characters, allelomorphs, 

 gametes, and segregation are briefl}^ mentioned. Pi-obably the 

 patient and unassuming student of practical problems ancillary to 

 heredity of characters would prefer to be designated as a Moravian 

 abbot rather than an Austrian monk (p. 326). The book is well 

 printed and the index is carefully done. 



F. N. Williams. 



A Sandloolc of some South Indian Grasses. By Eai Bahadur 

 K. Eanga AciiARiYAR, M.A., Indian Agricultural Service, 

 assisted by C. Tadulinga Mudaliyar, F.L.S. 8vo, pp. iv, 

 318. Government Press, Madras, 1921. Price 4 rupees 8 annas. 



This book is intended to serve as a guide to the study of the 

 grasses of the plains of South India, and includes about one hundred 

 species of wide distribution, many of which occur also in other parts 

 of India. The rarer grasses of the plains and those growing on the 

 hills have been omitted ; it is proposed to deal with these separately. 

 As an introduction the author briefly describes the general structure 

 of a common species {Panicum javanicuui), and then at greater 

 length the characters of the vegetative organs, inflorescence, and 

 flower, and the histology of stem and leaf of grasses generally. The 

 greater part of the book is occupied with a systematically arranged 

 descriptive account of the genera and species, the arrangement 

 being that adopted by Sir Joseph Hooker in the Flora of British 

 India ; keys to the genera included are given under each tribe. 

 The descriptions of the genera and species are adequate and clear, 

 and the illustrations depicting the habit of the plant or the characters 

 of the spike and spikelet are helpful. The practice of beginning each 

 description at the top of a page entails some waste of space and gives 

 an unusual appearance to the text ; and the impressions of the 

 figures are not alwa3's sharp. The text is, however, clear, and the 

 name of each species stands out well. The handbook should prove 

 very useful to the members of the Agricultural and Forest Depart- 

 ments and others interested in the grasses of the plains of Southern 

 India. 



A. B. R. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Ixxvii. pt. 2 

 (issued 11th Nov., 1921), contains a joint paper by the late Clement 

 ileid and Mr. James Groves on " The Charophyta of the Lower 

 Headon Beds of Hordle Cliffs." The first part, written by Mr. Ileid, 

 is a careful stratigraphical account of the beds from which the sjjeci- 

 mens were obtained ; the second is a svstematic account of the fossil 



