L82 the joi'k.vw. or botaxx 



must be emphasized that in cases of doubtful, critical, or non- 

 typical plants the Handbook cannot be substituted for the more 

 complete Monograph, by the same author. 



W. Watson. 



Aspects of Plant Life with special reference to the British Flora. 

 By Robert LLOYD Prakuek. (Nature Lover's Series.) 8vo, 

 cloth, pp. 207, illustrated. S. P. ('. K. Gs. net. 



Mr. Praeger's pleasant and eminently readable style makes his 

 books ideal for holiday perusal. The " Nature Lover " will from 

 this book learn much of where, why, and how, plants grow in their 

 homes, how they spread (dispersal) and colonise (migrate). More- 

 over, the information is very accurate, a rare thing in a popular book ; 

 it is scarcely to the author's discredit that he " does not attempt to 

 make botany as amusing as fiction, as Grant Allen did in the Story of 

 the Flowers " — to quote from a newspaper review of the work. The 

 biology of the flower, the relations between " Plants and Men " and 

 " Plants and Animals," as well as the plant itself and its life's work, 

 are all interestingly outlined, and technical terms are so introduced 

 as to make them seem real friends. Tn " Past and Present " the 

 origin of the British flora is discussed, and in the last chapter " some 

 interesting plant groups" are described. Mr. Praeger has not 

 noticed the interesting contribution to Knowledge (Dec. 1916), in 

 which Mr. C. L. Withycombe shows that the accepted story of the 

 TJtricularia is erroneous. The bladders have the sides drawn in 

 when empty. A touch on the bristles causes the bladders to expand 

 violently and suck in the intruder: the suction power was sufficient 

 greatly to distort the head of a small tadpole whose tail was caught 

 in an adjoining bladder. Darwin's failure to find irritability was due 

 to insufficient observation. 



The print and paper are good, the figures sufficient, although the 

 frontispiece of Desert Plants seems rather out of place. The index is 

 inadequate and the colour scheme of the cover does not please us, 

 but these are small blemishes in an excellent little book. 



A. J. W. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



Robert Allen Rolfe, whose death at his residence at Kew on 

 April 13, after a long illness, we briefly chronicled in our last issue, 

 entered the Royal Gardens in 1879, and in the following year obtained 

 by competitive examination a post in the Herbarium. There he 

 devoted himself especially to the Orchidacece, on which order he soon 

 became our leading authority, the value of his work being generally 

 recognised. In 1893 he established The Orchid Review, which he 

 conducted with marked ability and sometimes at pecuniary loss until 

 the end of last year. But although it is in connection with Orchids 

 that Rolfe's name will chiefly be reinembered, much good work in 

 other orders stands to his credit. He paid special attention to the 

 Selaginece ; his paper on that order (Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot. xx. 338- 

 3oS • 1883), as described by Linnaeus and other early authors, is a 



