202 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANT 



was a Butterfly Orchis, but when the flowers opened her mother 

 guessed it was the Lizard Orchis from the shape of the flowers. The 

 specimen was exhibited at the Wild Flower Exhibition at Lewes, and 

 has been presented to the National Herbarium. The spike bore 

 sixteen flowers ! — E. J. Bedford. 



[Dr. A. H. Church informs us that a specimen of 0. liircina, col- 

 lected near Oxford, was recently left in the Laboratory there. — Ed. 

 JouRN. Box.] 



REVIEWS. 



The Origin and Develo'pment of the CompositcB. By James Small, 

 D.Sc, Ph.C, F.L.S. New Phytologist. Reprint, No. 11. 8vo, 

 boards, pp. 334, Wesley & Son. Price 15s. net. 



An eminent scientist with a penchant for spiritualism some years 

 ago humourously complained that his sceptical friends were wont to 

 arraign him as being, like the man in the comic poem who lodged at 

 a baker's, " two single gentlemen rolled into one " : while his feet 

 remained on the " solid ground of nature " he was Orthocrookes, but 

 he became Pseudocrookes the moment he deviated into the super- 

 natural. The perusal of this collection of reprints from the Neto 

 FhjtoJogist has recalled the story to mind. Two persons are to be 

 seen in Dr. Small — one an eager student of the known, industriously 

 marshalling authorities and ft-aming suggestions in such a way as to 

 give valuable information concerning the Compositce ; the other a 

 sort of Diogenes with a difference, who lights his candle and proceeds 

 to search for what is " primitive." This quality of primitiveness is to 

 Dr. Small as King Charles's head was to Mr. Dick, and the reader 

 iinqualifixl to pronounce an opinion on so complex a subject finds him- 

 self, Uke Kosa Dartle, asking " why ? " when confronted with these 

 confidently o:ffered assumptions. 



We are to consider, it appears, the truncate-penicillate style as 

 t3^pical, all others being modifications of it. Stamens having anthers 

 with cells truncate and unappendaged at the base constitute 

 *' obviously the primitive and characteristic stamen for the family." 

 Irritability of the pollen -presentation mechanism — a subject discussed 

 in a very interesting manner — leads Dr. Small to conclude that, of 

 the three main types A, B and C of movement, C is the most 

 primitive because it involves onlj^ one step — the contraction of but 

 one of the five filaments ; while A and B, involving more than one, 

 are therefore less primitive. Further we are to regard as primitive 

 the yellow tubular corolla ; as primitive, too, the pappus with scabrous 

 setiB, such pappus being trichoraal in nature ; also the uniseriate 

 involucre and the smooth or foveolate receptacle. Our eyes being 

 thus opened, behold as " the first genus of the Comiiositce to come 

 into existence " which has " directly or indirectly given rise to all the 

 other genera of the family," the genus SenecioX 



The Age and Area hypothesis is claimed as confirming this con- 

 clusion ; but one would like to ask Dr. Small, in view of the scanti- 



