314 NOTICES OF UOOKS. 



1. About ten per cent, have glutinous stigmis, borne on styles long 

 enough to project a little beyond the throiit of the corolla ; the 

 anthers are slender and included ; they soon wither away, and con- 

 tain few pollen- grains. 



2. A few plants have stigmas as in 1, but the styles are iiicludiMl ; 

 the anthers also are in the same state as in 1, though sometimes rudi- 

 mentary or altogether absent. 



3. Three-fourths of all specimens examined have long styles, but 

 smooth and almost dry stigmas ; in this form the anthers abound in 

 pollen. 



4. A few have the dry stigmas of 3, but short styles. 



These facts are held to show that dimorphism had at first been 

 attempted, but that the androecium did not exhibit sufficient plasticity 

 of modification, so that the tendency is now towards dioecism, the less 

 economical method of ensuring cross-fertilisation. 



I^oticc^ of 25ooft^. 



Mathias de V Olel : sa Vie et ses Q^uvres, 1538-1(516. Par M. 

 Edouard Moeeen. Liege. 1875. (pp. 25,) 



We have here another of those carefully-written biographies of 

 Belgian botanists which M. E. Morren has from time to time brought 

 out. As in reviewing the corresponding memoir of Charles de 

 I'Escluse in these columns, (Journ. Bot. n.s., iv., p. 347) we alluded 

 to the interest attaching to the visit to this country of the subject of 

 the biography, so in this case even greater interest arises from the fact 

 that Lobel not only passed many years of his life on these shores, but 

 ended his days within a short journey of the metropolis. 



For the most part, those who have attempted to tell the life-history 

 of our early botanographers have contented themselves with the bare 

 statements derived from perusal of the works of their respective 

 authors, without giving the needful references. These omissions greatly 

 add to the labour of subsequent biographers, who feel it incumbent 

 upon them to test the truth of each individual statement. Even in 

 this little brochure the reader will frequently regret the want of 

 citations. Take, for instance, this passage : "... De I'Obel avait 

 beaucoup herborise en Angleterre, et Ton rapporte meme que sa femme 

 I'aidait a coUectionner des plantes " (p. 8). "We ai-e not ourselves 

 aware from whence this rather vague assertion takes its rise ; on the 

 contrary, we are sorry that our author has not solved the question for 

 us, but has suffered it to remain unproved. 



Excepting on this point, we can accord a full measure of approba- 

 tion to the work before us as being the fullest account of Lobel that 

 has appeared, or is likely to appear, unless some unexpectedly rich 

 vein of information should hereafter be opened up. In the dispute 

 between Parkinson and William How, ^I. Morren not unnaturally 

 sides with the latter, although we cannot approve of the far from gentle 



