A^^LAL HEPOET OF WATSON" EXCHANGE CLUB 27 



sent specimens to Mr. Arthur Bennett, who determined it to be the 

 above hybrid, saying at the same time that it has hitherto been found 

 only in Denmark, and possibly in Bavaria. There were two or three 

 distinct beds of it, and on a subsequent visit another was found about 

 a mile below, on the opposite (left) bank, a short distance below the 

 bridge. — ^W. Baeclat. 



Ammophila haltica Link. Sand dunes north of Yarmouth, E. 

 Norfolk, June 26, 1915. The last edition of the Lond. Cat. treats 

 A. haltica as an undoubted hybrid of A. arenaria ; . . . . The status 

 of A. haltica was presumably determined in Northern Europe, where 

 jDOssibly it occm-s in company w4th both its reputed parents. In this 

 country, however, on the coast of Norfolk at least, Mr. C. E. Salmon 

 and I have, during the past summer, carefully noted the range and 

 associations of A. haltica, without perceiving anything suggestive of 

 a hybrid origin, and we did not meet with a single plant of Calama- 

 grostis epige'ios whilst botanising in the county. — J. W. White. 



The Antliocyanin Pifjments of Plants. By Muriel Wheldale. 

 University Press, Cambridge, 1916. 15^. net. 



The botanist of mature years, as well as the younger investigator 

 of plant chemistry, will read this well-constructed book with real 

 interest. The latter will find brought together in a masterly way 

 the multitudinous facts and hypotheses relating to the anthocyanins ; 

 the former will perceive a remarkable illustration of the change in 

 attitude which the botanist has assumed during the past decade. For 

 in bringing together facts old and new and in disinterring ancient 

 errors, with respect to some of which this reviewer himself admits 

 guilt. Miss Wheldale designedly or undesignedly, but in any case 

 effectually shows that the fashion of guessing at meanings has given 

 place to the custom of discovering processes. In the older day we 

 were happy at playing the guessing games of biology : content if we 

 were able to say that the anthocyanin pigment of a flower served the 

 purpose of attracting insects, that a similar pigment in a leaf was 

 useful in making it warm or keeping it cool or acting as a sunshade 

 to chlorophyll : and so we passed on, " in maiden meditation fancy 

 free " to guess again about the biological things. Unless he be very 

 mature indeed, the botanist who years ago took part in these pleasant 

 games must admit that the newer sterner attitude to biological 

 phenomena is more worthy of the serious attention of scientific work- 

 men, for it is better to find out what things are than to guess as to 

 their uses. 



In the case of the anthocyanin pigments their nature and proven- 

 ance are peculiarly well worth discovering ; for the reason that the 

 Mendelians have shown that these pigments are inherited in strictest 

 fashion and that they are controlled by other hereditable reagents — 

 paleifiers which make the colours faint, intensifiers which give rich- 

 ness to their tints, and inhibitors which suppress them altogether. 

 So if knowledge of the chemistry of these ])igments can catch up with 

 our knowledge of their inheritance w^e may hope to discover something 

 of the nature of the reagents of lieredit}^ 



