Safford: Ancestral Form of Dahlia 



381 



ticated the wild dahHas of the moun- 

 tains of Mexico and Guatemala before 

 the discovery of America. Dr. Fran- 

 cisco Hernandez, the celebrated Proto- 

 medico of Philip II, sent by his 

 sovereign in 1570 to New Spain to 

 study its resources, figured three dahlias 

 under the Aztec names Acocotli, Coco- 

 xochitl, and Acocoxochitl ; cocotli, like 

 the familiar name syringa, signifying a 

 hollow stem, or tube. These names 

 may be translated "water-pipe" or 

 "water-cane ;" "cane-flower," or "hol- 

 low-stem flower ;" and "water-pipe 

 flower." ^ In the Madrid edition of his 

 work (Vol. I, p. 14, cap. 24) Her- 

 nandez describes a plant apparently 



identical with Dahlia glahrata, or Dahlia 

 mcrckii, under the heading "De Acoco- 

 xochitl. seu flore Acocotli," with flower 

 heads having yellow disks and purple 

 ray-flowers. After which he goes on 

 to say that many other forms of Acoco- 

 xochitl occur in Mexico, differing from 

 one another in the size and color of the 

 flowers, some of them white, others 

 yellow, others purple or red, others 

 white tinged with purple, or perhaps 

 yellow tinged with red, and a great 

 many other kinds, in some cases with 

 double or multiple whorls or ray 

 flowers, either forming circles or clus- 

 tered in compact bunches {nianipuli)." 



^ See Safford, W. E. Notes on the Genus Dahlia, Journ. Wash Acad. Sciences, ix : 

 364. 1919. 



Popular German Eugenics 



Hygiene des Geschlechtslebens, 

 by Dr. Max von Gruber, pp. 116. 

 Bucheri der Gesundheidtspflege 

 Band 13, Stuttgart, Ernest Heinrich 

 Moritz, 1922. 



This popularly written little book by 

 a well-known Bavarian eugenist has 



reached the astonishing circulation of 

 more than 300,000 copies in Germany, 

 and is now in its fiftieth printing. It 

 begins with a brief but well written 

 consideration of reproduction, heredity 

 and selection, and the point of view of 

 eugenics is that presented throughout 

 the volume. — P.P. 



A Psychological History of Mankind 



Elements of Folk Psychology, by 

 WiLHELM WuNDT. Authorized 

 translation by Edward Leroy Schaub, 

 Ph. D., Professor of Psychology in 

 Northwestern University. Revised 

 Edition ; pp. 52. New York, The 

 Macmillan Co., 1921. 



This book was first published in Ger- 

 many in 1 91 2. Professor Schaub's 



translation appeared in 191 6. The ex- 

 tent of the revision is not stated. 



Dr. Wundt's point of view is, of 

 course, well known to all special stu- 

 dents. This volume contains a great 

 mass of material of interest to all who 

 are concerned with the evolution of 

 man. The almost total lack of refer- 

 ence to original sources deprives it of 

 some of the value which it would other- 

 wise have to the eugenist. — P. P. 



