NATURE 



May 4, 1876 



Kautzsch, Socin, and Koch which it has elicited will 

 remain valuable contributions to palaeography, and if it 

 should call forth any more such solid disquisitions, 

 science will be permanently benefited. 



HOOKER'S ''PRIMER OF BOTANY" 



Science Primers. Edited by Professors Huxley, Roscoe, 

 and Balfour Stewart.—" Botany." By Dr. J. D. Hooker, 

 C.B., P.R.S. (London : Macmillan and Co., 1876.) 



IT is now almost universally admitted that the study of 

 botany may be made an excellent training for children ; 

 but the extent of the subject is so great, and the phrase- 

 ology has become so overwhelmed with technical terms 

 that even those who have been the most anxious to see 

 the science generally introduced into our schools as a 

 branch of education, are much perplexed when called upon 

 to determine in what way it can best be taught. Some 

 think it most prudent to confine the attention of children 

 to such points as may be observed with the unaided 

 eye, or at any rate to such points as only require the help of 

 an ordinary magnifying-glass ; hence they limit the teach- 

 ing of botany to a study of the more conspicuous parts 

 of the higher groups of vegetable life, and leave the study 

 of physiology and histology to a more advanced age. 

 There is, no doubt, much that can be said in favour of 

 this view, for in order to become fully acquainted with 

 these branches of botany a much greater experience and 

 skill in manipulation and experiment are required, as 

 well as the use of high magnifying powers, than, it is 

 quite certain, a child can be expected to possess. At the 

 same time this limitation to so small a portion of botanical 

 science has the tendency to produce in the mind con- 

 tracted ideas respecting the true scope of the subject ; for 

 to a large extent it only admits of facts being heaped 

 upon facts, without their proper connection one with 

 another being made manifest. It is owing to this want 

 of concatenation in the teaching that has led many to 

 think less highly of botany as a branch of education than 

 they otherwise might have done, and that its introduction 

 into schools has not met with so much success as its 

 more sanguine advocates could have wished to see. 



The " Primer " of Botany by Dr. Hooker will go far to 

 remove these difficulties, which have hitherto stood in the 

 way of a more successful treatment of the subject ; for in 

 the simplest language, and with an absence of all tech- 

 nical terms but such as are absolutely necessary for a 

 proper comprehension of the subject — and which, when 

 they do occur, are always fully explained — the pupil is 

 introduced to all the most important facts connected with 

 structural and physiological botany. These facts, by 

 means of a judicious arrangement and proper explana- 

 tions, are made to exhibit their mutual dependence upon 

 one another, and the work thus forms a continuous argu- 

 ment from beginning to end. Although the book contains 

 only 112 pages, and is profusely illustrated, there is 

 hardly a point in structure or physiology that is not 

 touched upon, and so far as the scope of the book will 

 allow, fully explained. A further very noticeable charac- 

 teristic of the " Primer " is that the pupil is instructed to 

 draw conclusions from information derived from obser- 

 vation founded upon experiment as well as from direct 

 observation. 



To teachers the " Primer" will be of inestimable value, 

 and not only because of the simplicity of the language 

 and the clearness with which the subject matter is treated, 

 but also on account of its coming from the highest autho- 

 rity, and so furnishing positive information as to the most 

 suitable methods of teaching the science of botany, and 

 for the want of which the instruction given in schools has 

 hitherto been too often of a most capricious description. 

 Again, those who have the formation or management of 

 gardens, set aside for botanical purposes, entrusted to 

 them, will find the list of plants at the end of the book 

 extremely useful, as it contains those which experience has 

 shown to afford the best examples of the particular cha- 

 racters it is desirable to illustrate ; they are also such as 

 may be readily procured and easily grown. 



If the "Primer" has long been looked for, the high 

 expectations which have been raised are not doomed to 

 be disappointed, and it may be confidently anticipated 

 that its introduction into schools will determine very 

 largely the direction which the teaching of botany in this 

 country will take for the future. 



M. A. Lawson 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Aventures A^riennes et Experiences Memorables des 

 Grands Ah'onautes. Par W. de Fonvielle. Ouvrage 

 orn^ de 40 gravures. (Paris : E. Plon, 1876.) 



M. DE Fonvielle's name is no doubt familiar to our 

 readers as that of an experienced scientific aeronaut and 

 writer on aeronautics. In the work before us he has 

 traced in an interesting and instructive manner the 

 history of ballooning from the first rude attempts to rise 

 in the air, down to the elaborate experiments and 

 machines which have been devised at the present day. 

 He has evidently spent considerable pains to obtain a 

 complete knowledge of the history and methods of 

 ballooning, and his scientific knowledge enables him to 

 point out in the many experiments which have been 

 made, the causes of failure or success. The work is 

 evidently meant mainly for popular reading, and those 

 who understand French will find it full of interest. The 

 author attempts to show how practically to utilise a dis- 

 covery which up to the present time has produced few 

 practical results. He is quite opposed to all the fantas- 

 tical projects which have been proposed and tried in 

 aeronautics, and treats his subject, on the whole, in a 

 sensible and moderate fashion, showing that those 

 chimerical schemes have been really hindrances to the 

 improvement of aerial navigation. He shows that im- 

 portant meteorological results might be obtained by 

 properly organised ascents, and that indeed in this 

 respect results of some importance have already 

 been obtained. The numerous illustrations are interest- 

 ing, and altogether the work may be regarded as an im- 

 portant contribution to the history of aeronautics. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the -writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 N« notice is taken of anonymous communications.'] 



New Laurentian Fossil 



Mr. James Thomson, of Glasgow, who has been for some 

 years on the out-look for fossils in the Laurentian rocks of Scot- 

 land, and has searched parts of Argyleshire, Inverness-shire, 

 Ross-shire, and Caithness with this object, has [lately been 

 rewarded ^by the discovery, in the neighbourhood of Tarbert, 



