Dec. 19, 1889] 



NATURE 



149 



triaxon and the tetraxon spicules were developed by an 

 adaptation of the divergent development of the canal 

 system. The primordial forms of both lived in water 

 rich in silica, and certain forms of both lost their spicules 

 in consequence perhaps, of rising from deeper to shallower 

 water, where silica is more scarce. In both, some forms 

 have lost the skeleton altogether, while others have re- 

 placed it gradually by spongin." 



While acknowledging that some authors whose opinions 

 must carry great weight, such as Balfour, Biitschli, and 

 Sollas, consider the sponges as a separate group, equal 

 in value to the groups Protozoa and Metazoa, Lendenfeld 

 cannot but conclude that the sponges are, without doubt, 

 Metazoa, and certainly Coelentera, in the sense of being 

 provided with a simple body cavity. 



The last twenty pages of the work are devoted to a 

 synopsis of all the known sponges, giving the classes, 

 families, orders, and genera. In this extremely useful list 

 there is a short analysis of the families and orders, 

 which is based on the labours of Vosmaer, Ridley, Dendy, 

 Sollas, Schulze, added to those of the author's own. The 

 author ends his treatise with the statement that " Now 

 that all the groups of sponges have been thoroughly in- 

 vestigated, we may consider our knowledge of their phylo- 

 genetic affinities established on a satisfactory footing " 

 (p. 909) ; but it seems well to call to mind the statement 

 with which he closes his short preface, and with which we 

 feel the more inclined to agree, " our present knowledge 

 of the group . . . has only just arrived at a stage corre- 

 sponding to the knowledge of the higher animals of half 

 a century ago " (p. 5). 



In concluding our only too brief notice of this important 

 work, for which all workers on the group must thank Dr. 

 Lendenfeld, we may mention that the sponge portraits 

 are for the most part photo-lithographs taken from the 

 original types.; though in a few cases, where no good 

 specimens were available, the lithographic illustrations 

 are from drawings. 



THE FLORA OF SUFFOLK. 

 The Flora of Suffolk. By W. M. Hind, LL.D., Rector 

 of Honington, assisted by the late Churchill Babing- 

 ton, D.D., F.L.S. With a Chapter on the Geology, 

 Climate, and Meteorology of Suffolk, by Wheelton 

 Hind, M.U., F.R.C.S. Pp. 508, with a Map. (Lon- 

 don : Gilbert and Jackson, 1889.) 

 SUFFOLK is a characteristic lowland maritime Eng- 

 lish county, the flora of which, at the present day, 

 contains absolutely no infusion of the boreal element. 

 Its area is about 1500 square miles. The whole surface 

 is flat, without any prominent rocks. It is underlain by 

 chalk, which, in the north and west, lies immediately 

 below the subsoil, but, in the south and east, is covered 

 by Tertiary and Glacial deposits, which at Harwich have 

 been found to reach a thickness of 1000 feet before the 

 chalk is reached. In White's history of the county, its 

 soils are classified into three groups: heavy lands, in 

 which clay predominates ; mixed land, common mixed 

 soil, rich deep moulds, fen-lands, and rich marshes ; and 

 light lands, consisting of sand over chalk. To the first 

 set belong the soils of the western two-thirds of the 



county, except in the extreme north and near the coast. 

 The mixed lands are found — one portion east of the heavy 

 lands between the Orwell and the Stour ; a second in the 

 north, between Halesworth and Yarmouth ; and a third 

 west of the heavy lands between Holston and New- 

 market. The sandy, or light, soils are in the extreme 

 north-west, in what is called the " Breck district," between 

 Thetford and Mildenhall, where are found the rarest 

 plants of the county, such as Veronica hybrida, V. tri- 

 phyllos, V. verna, and Apera interrupta. The coast is 

 remarkable for the extent of its tidal estuaries and bays, 

 creeks and havens. There are no cliffs of any consider- 

 able height, but a great extent of sand and shingle. The 

 beach at Orford, where grows the great mass of Lathyrus 

 inaritimus, the seeds of which saved the life of many 

 poor people in a famine in the middle of the sixteenth 

 century, is said to have the greatest breadth of sand any- 

 where on the English coast. The rivers are shallow 

 streams with slow currents. In the north-east there are 

 several lakes of brackish water, not so well known as the 

 Norfolk Broads, of which Braydon Water covers 1200, 

 and Thorpe Mere 1000, acres- The fresh- water lakes of 

 the county are few and small. There is a considerable 

 area of fen- and marsh-land, both in the north-west and 

 east, so that we get in the county all the conditions that 

 produce a rich low-country flora, and, superadded to the 

 common lowland plants, rarities characteristic of chalk 

 country, the seashore, and fen-land ditches and marshes. 

 The country is so easy of access from the centres where 

 have lived many of the best botanists of bygone time, 

 such as London, Cambridge, Yarmouth, Norwich, and 

 Saffron Walden, that the principal features of its botany 

 have long been known, and many excellent botanists, 

 from the time of Buddie down to the present day, have 

 resided within its compass. The father of Suffolk botany 

 was Sir John CuUum, F.R.S., who lived near Bury St. 

 Edmunds, and kept a diary between 1772 and 1785, in 

 which he has recorded the occurrence of upwards of 500 

 plants. To his son. Sir Thomas Cullum, F.R.S., who 

 was also an enthusiastic botanist, Sir J. E. Smith dedi- 

 cated his " English Flora." In the present work there is 

 not only a full general history of the progress of Suffolk 

 botany, but, under each plant, the name of its first known 

 collector is registered. The first " Flora" of the county 

 was published in i860. It was carried out mainly by the 

 exertions of the late Mr. E. Skepper, working under the 

 superintendence of Prof. Henslow. After it was pub- 

 lished, Mr. Skepper made a great many notes for a new 

 edition, but he died in 1867. For several years the Rev. 

 Churchill Babington, who settled in the county in 1866, 

 paid attention to the subject. In 1875, the Rev. W. M. 

 Hind, a very competent botanist, well known by his 

 " Flora of Harrow," settled in the county, and Dr. 

 Babington sought and obtained his assistance to carry 

 on the work. Dr. Babington died early in the present 

 year. 



The bulk of the book is, of course, occupied by the 

 enumeration of the species and an account of the dis- 

 tribution and special localities of the varieties. The 

 county is divided into five districts, and the distribution 

 of the plants is traced through them. Only the Phanero- 

 gamia and Vascular Cryptogamia are dealt with, but 

 the mosses of the county have also been well worked. 



