LICHENS 333 



rently left to the printer : ample margins, wide spacing, abundant 

 headings — seven different founts of capitals being used for these 

 last — are admirable in their way, but increase expense. The mere 

 list of contents extends to 12 pages, and the Cambridge Chick-Pea 

 adorns the cover. One may admire botanical text-books de luxe, but 

 this defeats what should be the primary object of bringing the subject 

 within the range of teachers and students, an impecunious race ; at 

 the present time we can only wonder where these are to be found who 

 will be anxious to pay 55s. for a book which might have been pro- 

 duced for a sovereign, and is off the main track of the science. The 

 illustrations are also very disappointing ; the line-drawings are feeble, 

 and the half-tone blocks, which have necessitated the use of faced 

 paper, are of little value as affording any adecpiate idea of the 

 wonderful range and beauty of lichen-form ; some of them ' might 

 be anything.' Many sections and paragraphs of the book, as dealing 

 with points of ancient history or minor economic applications, would 

 have been better in a smaller type, as tending to differentiate the 

 material really important to the ordinary student. Such minor 

 matters may, however, be referred to the responsible editors of the 

 Cambridge series, to Miss Smith will be accorded the gratitude of 

 the English-speaking botanical world. 



A. H. C. 



Common Plants. By MacGreuor Skene, D.Sc, Lecturer on Plant 

 Physiology, Aberdeen University. 8vo, cloth, pp. 271, 24 plates. 

 London : A. Melrose. 6s. net. 



It is pleasant to find a popular book about Botany which we can 

 wholeheartedly recommend, and this we have in the volume whose 

 title stands above. It contains a series of thirty-three studies, each 

 " written round a common plant which serves as a particular illustra- 

 tion of plant life." The method of the book is so well defined in the 

 preface that we transcribe it in preference to giving a summary of 

 our own : — 



" The studies are not isolated ; a number of general themes act as 

 connecting-links. Thus the theme developed in the opening sections 

 is that of nutrition, in relation to the food supply of the world as 

 well as to that of the plant, and this runs through the survey of the 

 vegetable kingdom which follows and occupies the middle part of 

 the book. Grouped round the description of the rise of the land flora 

 are discussions of problems of water supply, of reproduction, of the 

 inter-relations of plants and animals. The relations of the plant to 

 man are emphasised in the opening and closing chapters." 



These chapters deal with Wheat, its origin, its photosynthesis, and, 

 finally, its development, in which the application of Mendelian prin- 

 ciples has produced important results. The three stages of Parasitism 

 are illustrated in as many chapters by the Mistletoe, the Dodders, and 

 the Broom-rapes ; of carnivorous plants the Sundew and Venus's 

 Fly-trap are taken as types, with references to other instances ; the 

 White Bryony furnishes the text for a chapter on " the vegetation 

 of plant-movements"; the establishment of Lupinus uootkatensis 

 on the shores of the Dee suggests a discussion on " the equipment of 



