90 NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 



like Dr. Celakovsky to endeavour to find some basis for the estima- 

 tion of the phjdogenetic vahie of teratology. While engaged on 

 this task, he would see that none of the facts with which he deals 

 can throw any light on ovular homology, which is a problem 

 restricted to the comparative morphology of the sexual organs. 



S. M. 



Der Einfluss der Luftfeuchtigkeit (Influence of Moisture on Vege- 

 tation). Von Paul Sorauer. (' Botanische Zeitung,' January, 

 1878). 



Carefully conducted experiments with spring-barley yielded 

 the following results : — In dry air branching was greater than in 

 moist, the mean figures standing at 2-77 and 2'37 respectively ; 

 length of leaves was greater in moist air in the ratio of 21-37 to 

 21-07, but the breadth was less (6-74 to 7*33) ; a moist atmosx)here 

 is more favourable to length of leaf- sheath in the proportion of 

 9-26 to 8-18, to growth of the principal stem (13*5 to 11-5), and to 

 root-development (26-8 to 23-9), It was found that the epidermal 

 cells of the leaves were more numerous and broader, the cells 

 between the stomates shorter, and the stomates themselves shorter 

 in dry air. Also, that leaves developing m a moist atmosphere 

 have comparatively fewer stomates per millimetre of length. The 

 question is worth further working out a propos of the relation 

 between the minute structure of organs and theii* environment. 



S. M. 



A Catalogue of the Collections in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society of Great Britain. Comi^iled by E. M. Holmes, F.L.S., 

 Cm-ator of the Museum. London. 1878. 



The execution of this catalogue reflects credit on the energetic 

 compiler, who has succeeded in producing a volume which, apart 

 from its primary object as a guide to the rich Museum of the 

 Pharmaceutical Society, contains a large amount of useful informa- 

 tion, in a very short form, on the di'ugs themselves. More than 

 half the volume is occupied by the vegetable Materia Medica, the 

 substances being arranged under the plants producing them 

 alphabetically under the Natural Orders in the usual sequence. A 

 few botanical slips should be corrected in a new edition. Irvingia is 

 a member of the Simaruhacece, not of the Anacardiacea:. as here placed. 

 There are two, not three, seeds m the fruit of Bhamnus Frangula. 

 The alteration of Eucalyptus (tIoI)uIus to E. ylohula is founded on 

 a misconception ; the author of the species mtentionally used 

 the substantive word Globulus in allusion to the button-shaped 

 foi-m of the fruit. Latakia tobacco has been proved to be produced 

 by X Tahacum, not N. rustica ; the ovules in the common Juniper 

 are alternate with the three fleshy scales, not " at the base of each;" 

 and the leaves of the Savin are sm-ely much less, not "more," 

 spreading than those of the former plant. But, on the whole, the 



