AN ACCOUNT OP THE MORISONIAN HERBARIUM 155 



One cannot but wish that circumstances had allowed of the 

 author discussing the results from the point of view of general 

 plant physiology, as there are many interesting aspects which 

 would bear comparison with other physiological processes, as, for 

 instance, the accumulative effect of stimulation, also seen in 

 geotropic movements ; the apparent presence of an optimum, &c. 



The author has noted a depression of excitability on rainy 

 days, which he attributes to absorption of water by the pulvinus. 

 One is not quite convinced that there may not be another inter- 

 pretation of the results following upon application of water to the 

 pulvinus, and still more so in connection with retardation of 

 excitability on rainy days. 



Prof. Chunder Bose is much to be congratulated on furnishing 

 such valuable additional data — data which must be taken into 

 account in all future considerations of this difficult subject. They 

 should prove of interest and value to animal as well as plant 

 physiologists, and we can but hope that he will still further add 

 to the debt we owe him by investigating the nature of the diffe- 

 rential excitability to which he attributes the movement of the 

 pulvinus. -^ -^ rp 



An Account of the Morisonian Herbarium in the possession of the 



University of Oxford, together ivith Biographical and Critical 



Sketches of Morison and the tioo Bobarts and their Works 



and the Early History of the Physic Garden (1619-1720). 



By S. H. Vines, M.A., F.E.S., Sherardian Professor of 



Botany in the University, and G. Claridge Druce, Hon. 



M.A., Curator of the Fielding Herbarium. 8vo, cloth, 



pp. Ixviii, 350, with portraits. Oxford : The Clarendon 



Press. Price 15s. net. 



This is a companion volume to the Account of the Dillenian 



Herbaria which was issued by the same Press in 1907, and was 



noticed in this Journal for that year (p. 282), and is yet another 



tribute to Mr. Druce's well-known energy ; for though Professor 



Vines, who in the earlier volume appeared as editor, is here placed 



as joint author, it may safely be assumed that the bulk of the 



undertaking has fallen to Mr. Druce's share. 



The book consists of two parts, the first containing the history 

 of the Oxford Garden, with full biographies of the two Bobarts 

 (1599 ?-1680 ; 1611-1719), whose names are so intimately asso- 

 ciated with its foundation and history, and of Robert Morison 

 (1620-1683), the first Professor in the University. These bio- 

 graphies, each of which is accompanied by a portrait, are exceed- 

 ingly well done; the history of the various publications of Morison 

 and the younger Bobart is worked out in so much detail and 

 with so great care that it can hardly be expected that future 

 commentators will be able to supplement it. One small detail 

 may, however, be added : the original figures in Morison's Plan- 

 tariwi Historia were, according to Stokes (With. Arr. ed. 2, 1), 

 " chiefly by Bobart," the editor of the book. It may be well to 

 supply the reference to the " collection of British plants, made 



