200 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



It will thus be understood that the light of Science as it is now 

 cast upon this perplexing subject, while it confessedly leaves many 

 problems entirely dark, avails at least to rectify the frontiers of 

 our knowledge, to the exclusion of a good deal we wrongly sup- 

 posed to be included. 



It is impossible within these limits to do more than thus gene- 

 rally indicate the characters and purport of Dr. Scott's book. 

 Though obviously it has nothing in common with the romance of 

 Natural History as set forth by imaginative writers, it is mani- 

 fest that, as in so many instances, the plain truth is even stranger 

 than any fiction, and some of the cases which are actually ex- 

 hibited are more curious than fancy could have invented. Such, 

 for example, is that of Orchids, which do not develop leaves, the 

 place of which is taken by the roots, which turn green and flatten 

 themselves over the trunk of the trees on which they grow, like 

 the fronds of a Liverwort ; or that of another Epiphyte, the " Old 

 Man's Beard," which has lost its roots altogether, and hangs loose 

 on the branches in long grey tufts, like a lichen. Extraordinary, 

 also, are the devices of parasitical plants which live upon others. 

 Some flowering plants find the business so profitable that they go 

 into partnership with fungi, to which such a mode of life appears 

 more natural. One famous parasite on Sumatran vines, which 

 bears a flower a yard in diameter, has practically nothing else to 

 show, stem, leaves, and roots having all disappeared, and being 

 represented only by a web of threads, like the spawn of a fungus 

 burrowing in the substance of its victim. 



In such cases, which might be multiplied to any extent, it is 

 clear that the adaptability of Nature is quite sufficient to account 

 for any amount of transformation, but how much has actually 

 occurred, and how, is another question, which can be settled only 

 by careful and accurate observation. 



John Gerard. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dc. 



Strong representations, with which we have already associated 

 ourselves, have been made to the Prime Minister by biologists gene- 

 rally throughout the country, as to the inadvisability of encroach- 

 ing on the site of the Natural History Museum, for the purpose 

 of the projected new Science Museum at South Kensington. 

 Vigorous notes of protest have been forwarded from the great 

 societies representing Biology, as the Linnean, Zoological, Koyal 

 Horticultural, Entomological, and others ; and petitions to the 

 same effect have been extensively signed by influential workers in 

 the various branches of biological science. 



Mr. A. T. Wilmott, B.A., late Scholar and Hutchinson Student 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, has been appointed Assistant in the 

 Department of Botany, British Museum. Mr. Wilmott will devote 

 himself mainly to the study of the European and British Floras. 



We regret to add to our necrology the names of Charles 

 Larbalestier and Dr. Harry Bolus, of whom we hope to give some 

 account in an early issue. 



