102 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



no means " the most brightly blue-flowered of the smaller speed- 

 wells," its blossoms containing as they do a considerable propor- 

 tion of white. The reference of course is to V. Ghamcednjs, which 

 is also hinted at in "a clear germander-eye," as Col. Prain allows, 

 though he goes into a discussion to show that " the true german- 

 ders" are Teucriums, none of which are blue, nor "have a flower 

 that can be likened to an eye." Again, under " the flower that 

 closes on the fly," Col. Prain gives us a disquisition on Silene 

 nutans and on insectivorous plants, of which " the influorescence 

 (sic) imprison (sic) flies," but doesn't close upon them, and winds 

 up with the statement, " the Sundews, if insectivorous plants are 

 intended, may well have been in the poet's mind, since these do 

 'close upon the fly,' but with their leaves, not with their flowers." 

 Can anyone doubt that Tennyson here used "flower" for the 

 whole plant, as in " Flower in the crannied wall"? or 



" Up there came a flower 

 The people said, a weed." 



By the way, the compilers say of The Floioer : "If these [verses] 

 did not in the poet's mind refer to natural study on Darwin's 

 lines, they are so applicable to that theme as to afford a wonderful 

 example of Tennyson's concern with natural processes." We 

 confess our inability to perceive the special applicability of this 

 " universal apologue," as the poet called it, to the Darwinian 

 theory, and as the verses were published in 1847 they can 

 scarcely have referred to it. 



Colonel Prain seems hardly to have understood the require- 

 ments of a book of this kind, and the compilers have allowed him 

 to divagate somewhat at length ; thus when Tennyson refers to 

 " the whitening sloe," the commentator tells us that " the black- 

 thorn sometimes goes by the name of sloe-tree, and Tennyson was 

 evidently calling it by that name here and alluding to the blos- 

 soms " ; there are other notes equally obvious in character. 



It may be added that while many of the quotations bear little 

 or no allusion to " scientific aspects of nature," others which have 

 such reference are not duly classified : thus 



" The white lake-blossom fell into the lake. 

 The pimpernel dozed on the lea " 



should clearly be headed " the sleep of flowers," and it may not 

 be obvious to all that by the "lake-blossom" is intended the white 

 water-lily. 



From this it will be manifest that in our judgement the idea 

 of the book, so far as plants are concerned, is better than its 

 execution. 



Plant-Animals ; a Study in Symbiosis. By Frederick Keeble, 

 Sc.D. Cambridge, at the University Press. Price Is. net. 



The title of this work is to some extent a misnomer. One 

 would a priori suppose that a shilling treatise on so wide a 

 subject as symbiosis would, for mere want of space, be restricted 

 to a recapitulation of the chief facts brought to light by observers 



