*°° THE JOURNAL < >!• BOTANT 



one exceptional germination, one would imagine that if lie had done 

 as the reviewer did on reading this statement— had taken eight broad 

 beans stripped carefully of all seed-coat, planted them in moist 

 garden-soil, and obtained good germination in every case— the book 

 would never have been written. Further, if, as we have done, the 

 author had germinated hundreds of broad beans pinned right through 

 with two pins to a piece of wood over which water from a tap was 

 flowing, the very idea of developing any theory of electrical insula- 

 tion as an essential factor in germination would never have occurred 

 to him. 



There are many interesting quotations and some experimental 

 results on general growth after germination which do not seem open 

 to question. Electrical theories of sleep, hearing, and cancer are also 

 suggested. The author maintains that the leaves of plants take in 

 trom the air a force, not electricity but something which suggests to 

 the reader the vital force or Prana of the Yogis, and that in this way 

 the normal polarity of plants is developed, the air being positive and 

 the earth negative. Taken simply as electrical force there is some 

 independent evidence that this may be a partial explanation of plant 

 polarity. ' 



J. S. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



The Report of the Watson Exchange Club for 1920-21 contains 

 as usual, numerous notes of interest on the plants received, contributed' 

 chiefly by Messrs. C. E. Salmon, A. Bennett, W. H. Pearsall J W 

 White, H. J. Biddelsdell (Rubi), H. W. Pugsley (ffieracwm), and 

 the Editor, Mr. H. S. Thompson. The notes are preceded bv 

 " Hints on Collecting and Mounting Linear-leaved Aquatics," by 

 Mr. W. H. Pearsall, which by the courtesy of the Editor we are 

 reprinting, as well as the note on Sydrilla by the same writer (p. 235). 

 On a '• very small-leaved prostrate Erodium from Glamorganshire," 

 Messrs. Salmon and Baker write :— " It is a pity the collector made 

 no note of the colour of floral parts and other details (as supyested 

 in Journ. Bot. 1920, 126) before drying this example. As far as 

 we can gather from the single specimen submitted, this comes 

 under M glutinoswn Bum. (less glandular than usual), having the 

 ± bipinnatifid leaves, short, few-flowered peduncles, sub-dentate fila- 

 ment, and small carpel-pit without the furrow, etc., of that species. 

 We should like, however, to see better material before definitely 

 committing ourselves to this name." 



The Kew Bulletin (1921, no. 4) is largely occupied by a 

 continuation of Mr. W. B. Grove's revision of the doubtful species 

 of Phoma which were included in the third volume of Saccardo's 

 Sylloge. " By this means, and by the labours of von Hohnel and 

 other workers, the genus has been relieved of many species referred 

 to it by the older mycologists, who regarded it "as a convenient 

 receptacle for doubtful forms : the genus Macrophoma has almost 



