150 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



The author's own standpoint is emphasised tliroughout the 

 volume, and the reader must also condone a somewhat aggressive 

 style of writing and a use of the superlative which is more frequent 

 than elegant. But apart from his conclusions becaring on phylogeny 

 or morphology, which may or may not be convincing, Mr. Wors- 

 dell has done useful work in bringing together a great mass of 

 facts bearing on plant-abnormalities, arranged primarily under the 

 organ affected. The scattered literature of the subject has been 

 carefully studied, and the author has also investigated a great 

 many cases at first hand. The book is the outcome of many 

 years' work and much deliberation, and will fill a useful place in 

 botanical literature. The first volume comprises an Introduction, 

 in which the author states his case, a section on the non-vascular 

 plants dealing with the comparatively few abnormalities which 

 have been described in the Fungi and Bryophytes, and a much 

 larger section dealing with abnormalities of the Koot, Stem or 

 Shoot, and Leaf of the Vascular Plants. There is also a glossary, 

 and selected bibliographies at the end of the various subdivisions. 

 The text-figures are useful, though somewhat crude, and the long 

 series of plates, mainly photographic reproductions of actual 

 specimens, are a helpful addition. The second volume will deal 

 with the Flower. A. B. R. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



The March number of the Journal of Genetics (Cambridge 

 University Press, 10s. net) is almost entirely occupied with matter 

 of botanical interest. The largest paper is that by Misses Caroline 

 Pellew and Florence M. Duncan on " The Genetic Behaviour of 

 the Hybrid Primula Kewensis and its Allies." The first Primula 

 kewensis was found growing among plants of P. florihunda, and 

 was thought to be an accidental hybrid of florihunda and 

 verticillata : after a period of sterility it gave rise to a perfectly 

 fertile form of larger size widely known as a greenhouse plant, 

 and it is to this form that the name P. kewensis is generally 

 applied. The paper is illustrated by five beautiful plates, mostly 

 in colour — one of the latter shows some of the shades of yellow 

 not previously known in kewensis nor florihunda. Miss Edith R. 

 Saunders writes " On the Relation of Half-Hoariness in Matthiola 

 to Glabrousness and Full Hoariness"; Messrs. W. Neilson Jones 

 and M. Chevely Rayner on " Mendelian Inheritance in Varietal 

 Crosses of Bryonia dioica," witli three plates ; Messrs. J. Vargas 

 Eyre and G. Smith write on " The Cross Pollination of Flax," 

 which is followed by a note by Mr. Bateson on " Experiments 

 with Flax at the John Innes Horticultural Institution." 



The recently issued (March) part of the Flora of Troincal 

 Africa (vol. vi, sec. 2, part 1), which is edited by Sir David Prain, 

 is mainly occupied by the MoracecB, which are elaborated by Mr. 

 Hutchinson and Dr. Rendle, the latter having also undertaken the 

 Ulmacece. The principal genera are Dorstenia, of which Dr. 



