196 



NA TURE 



\yan. 2, 1890 



Ol/R BOOK SHELF. 



Index of British Plants, arranged according to the 

 London Catalogtce {Eighth Edition), including the 

 Synonyms used by the Priticipal Authors, &^c. By 

 Robert Turnbull. Pp. 98. (London : George Bell and 

 Son, 1889.) 



This alphabetical synonymic list of Bi-itish flowering- 

 plants and vascular Cryptogamia is similar in general 

 plan to that which was published about a year ago by Mr. 

 Egerton-Warburton, which we noticed at the time of its 

 issue (Nature, vol. xl. p. 306). The author uses as a 

 basis the last edition of the London Catalogue, and gives 

 the synonyms of all the species that are described under 

 different names in " English Botany," Bentham's " Hand- 

 book," Babington's "Manual," Hooker's "Student's 

 Flora," " British Wild Flowers," Lindley's " Synopsis," 

 Hooker and Arnott's "British Flora," Withering's "Ar- 

 rangement," Notcutt's " Hand-book," and Hayward's 

 " Pocket-book." The author has carried out his task 

 very carefully, and has added an English name for each 

 species, and given at the end a list of English names 

 in alphabetical order. Two things lately have com- 

 bined to cause considerable change in plant-names, 

 the revision and redescription of the genera by Bentham 

 and Hooker, and the increased attention which has been 

 paid in tracing out priority by Mr. Daydon Jackson and 

 Mr. Britten in England, and by Ascherson, Nyman, and 

 many other writers on the Continent. We have noted a 

 few slips in turning over the pages. For instance, there 

 are only two native species oi Achillea, not five — decolorans, 

 serrata, and tanacetifolia, being manifest introductions. 

 No wonder the author has not been able to refer some 

 of the older bramble names to their London Catalogue 

 synonyms. Guntheri, Bab., and saltnum, Foche, are both 

 synonyms of the plant called Jlexuosus in the London 

 Catalogue. The book will be found useful to many 

 collecting botanists scattered up and down the country 

 who have been puzzled to understand what was intended 

 by many of the newly-introduced names. J. G. B. 



Practical Observations on Agricultural Grasses and other 

 Pasture Plants. By William Wilson, Jun. (London; 

 Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1889.) 



Mr. Wilson tells us that " agriculturists have allowed 

 themselves to run too much after a channel of indoor in- 

 vestigations." We do not know that this has been a fault 

 in agriculturists, and are not convinced of the fact. Mr. 

 Wilson appears to have omitted to acquire one important 

 accomplishment in a writer on any subject — namely, the 

 power of writing intelligibly. He tells us that " soil may be 

 described as earthy matter on the surface of the globe " ; 

 that " climate has been described as a very complex 

 matter, depending on a great variety of conditions " ; 

 but he does not say by whom it has been so lucidly 

 "described." We are told that "sweet-scented vernal 

 grass is one which most writers on grasses give a 

 place as a useful grass, but not very definite as to what 

 place it belongs, as it is not very readily eaten in some 

 parts where there is a considerable quantity of it." 

 Speaking of rough-stalked meadow-grass, he says : — 

 "The Rev. J. Farquharson, F.R.S., mentions in his paper, 

 which I have previously spoken of, as having cultivated 

 it successfully on such soil, testifies as to the fondness 

 of animals — both cattle and horses — for it, both as pasture 

 and hay." Again, he informs us that " the fact has been 

 pretty well borne out that a great fault has been to look at 

 cultivation too much in the light of a matter which has 

 been thoroughly investigated, when in reahty it has little 

 more than reached its infancy." Now, with all respect to 

 Mr. Wilson, it appears to us to be mere cant to talk of the 

 most ancient of all arts as having only reached its infancy. 

 The style in which this little eigh teen-penny book is written 



is poor and obscure, and the above quotations may be con- 

 sidered as fair samples of it. For instance, the eye falls by 

 chance on the following passage (p. 70) : — " The results of 

 my observations have led me to the same conclusion as 

 Mr. Sinclair — am of opinion that a mixture of it {sic) on 

 dry soil would prove satisfactory, but should not be sown 

 on clay moist soil." That this work should have reached 

 a second edition is certainly strange, and appears to indi- 

 cate that the agricultural palate is, as yet, particularly 

 fresh. It must require a good deal of open-air exercise 

 to enable a reader to digest Mr. Wilson's crudities. 



W. 



The State. Elements of Historical and Practical Politics 

 By Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D., LL.D. (Boston, U.S.A. : 

 Heath and Co., 1889.) 

 This work may be regarded partly as a text-book of 

 political science adapted to the education of the young, 

 partly as a repertory of what the writer calls "govern- 

 mental facts," useful to readers of all ages. In the first 

 part of his task Mr. Wilson has encountered great diffi- 

 culties. He has no predecessors in whose steps to follow. 

 Also the loose mass of facts and opinions which make up 

 what is called political science does not admit of being 

 compressed with safety. Again the class to whom Mr. 

 Wilson offers a highly concentrated intellectual pabulum 

 are little able to assimilate this species of nutriment 

 even in its most digestible form. The young man, says 

 Aristotle is not fit to be a student of political science. 

 These difficulties appear to have been surmounted by Mr. 

 Wilson better than might have been expected. He avoids 

 the dogmatism to which short catechisms are liable. For 

 instance in his section on the probable origin of govern- 

 ment he does not rule that the earliest constitution of the 

 family was patriarchal, or " matriarchal," as we believe it 

 is now the fashion to say. While inclining to the 

 former view he presents also the latter ; and gives refer- 

 ences by the aid of which the enquiry can be pursued. 

 He stimulates curiosity and affords the means of gratify- 

 ing it. The " evolution of government" is traced from 

 the origin of the Aryan family through the changing types 

 of Greek and Roman governments. This " institutional 

 history " is somewhat dry ; but the writer expects that the 

 topical skeleton furnished by him will be clothed upon by 

 the lessons of the intelligent teacher. Coming to modern 

 times, we find a description of the principal pieces of 

 political machinery which are now in use in the civilized 

 world. This compilation seems to serve the purpose of a 

 sort of magnified " Whittaker." If anyone who has not 

 exhausted the subject of Home Rule wishes to refresh his 

 memory as to the relations between Austria and Hungary 

 or Sweden and Norway, he can here look out, as in a 

 political dictionary, the main facts. We come nearest to 

 the " practical politics " announced in the title in the 

 chapter which discusses what are the proper objects of 

 government. " This," says Mr. Wilson with much good 

 sense, " is one of those difficult problems upon which 

 it is possible for many sharply opposed views to be held 

 apparently with almost equal weight of reason ... It 

 is a question which can be answered, if answered at all, 

 only by aid of a broad and careful wisdom whose conclu- 

 sions are based upon the widest possible inductions from 

 the facts of political experience in all its phases." Mr. 

 Wilson's solution of what Burke has called the " finest 

 problem in legislation " is thus stated : — " It should be the 

 end of government to accomplish the objects of organized 

 society Not licence of interference on the part of govern- 

 ment, only strength and adaptation of regulation. The 

 regulation which I mean is not interference, it is the equal- 

 ization of conditions, so far as is possible, in all branches 

 of endeavour." Perhaps this teaching would have been 

 more impressive if the writer, condescending to particulars, 

 had discussed pretty fully any one question such as whether 

 in any assigned country, the railways ought to be managed 



