NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIES. 123 



requirements of space, however, will not allow us to enter fiu'ther 

 into the views of si^ecial evolution here enunciated. The chief 

 objection we have to take relates to the uncontrolled way 

 in which the author allows one or two special hobbies to take 

 possession of his imagmation. For mstance, he tries to show that 

 the principal agent in vegetable differentiation has been coohng of 

 the earth ! We are soiTy to say, too, that we think he fails 

 entirely to establish the truth of his chief hobby — the primitive 

 fresh-water sea ; x^i'ii^i^i'^^s, that is to say, m the sense here 

 adopted. According to this, the great-rooted plants of the coal- 

 measui-es floated in a vast ocean of fresh water, the existence of 

 the roots bemg cited as a mam x3roof of this extraordinary position ! 

 In spite of these serious drawbacks, however, w^e have a hearty 

 feelmg of thankfulness tow^ards the author for giving us this book. 



S. M. 



A few additions to the list of Cleistogamous plants have 

 recently been made. Asa Gray (' SiUiman's Journal,' 1878, p. 71) 

 notes that Mr. Pringle has communicated to him that the con- 

 dition occurs in Dalibarda repeiu, in ' JJantlionia spicata and its 

 allies, and in Yilfa and other grasses.' Closed flowers of Collomia 

 coccinea have been tigm'ed and described by F. Ludwig in ' Bo- 

 tanische Zeitung ' for December, 1877. 



The following interesting facts will be found in the 2nd and 

 3rd parts of Mr. Fitzgerald's 'Australian Orchids,' the first 

 pai*t of which we have already noticed. Spiranthes australis, 

 Ldl., offers a great contrast with -S'. autuninalis, for in it the 

 anther shrinks back, leaving the persistent pollinia exposed. In 

 the many flow^ers examined, the pollinia were not deranged in the 

 slightest degree, and some force even was required to break them 

 up; no trace of pollen was found on the stigma, although abundance 

 of seed was set. The only conclusion is that fertilization takes 

 place by contact of the edge (and possibly part of the inner side) 

 of the stigma with the j)ollinia. The same curious method of 

 fertilization was found to occur in the case of Onhoceras strictuw. 

 It was observed that a flower of Caladenia tessellata, Fitzgerald, 

 was fertilized by an insect endeavouring to escape from its cocoon ; 

 it is ingeniously suggested that perhaps this may often occur, as 

 the dorsal sepal would conveniently shelter an insect about to 

 undergo metamorphosis. Species of Pramphjllmn show the benefit 

 derived from a gregarious habit, the solitary plants frequently 

 having not a flower fertilized, the gregarious one being all fertilized. 

 We wish Mr. Fitzgerald would study the vegetative habit of his 

 favourites. 



Count Solms-Laubach has printed in the 'Linn^ea' (Bd. viii, 

 heft 1, February, 1878) the monograph of Pandanacece upon which 

 he has been for some years engaged. He recognises but two 

 genera, Pandanus, Linn, f., and Freycinetia, Gaud., the former 

 with 50, the latter with 28 species fahdy well known, but each with 



