Jan. 9, i8go] 



NATURE 



223 



yard manure is the true restorer of fertility, the very milk 

 of plants, the very life-blood of the soil, if such an expres- 

 sion may be allowed. Farmyard manure during its decay 

 has its elements liberated from organic combinations gra- 

 dually, and when wanted, as well as in a condition so avail- 

 able for the food of plants, that as a manure it is inimitable. 

 No other manure can in all cases be applied to all crops 

 with the same marked effects. It is strange that farm- 

 yard manure alone acts promptly and certainly upon 

 leguminous crops such as beans, peas, and clover. No 

 chemical manure, whether nitrogenous or phosphatic, can 

 be relied upon to affect these crops, and yet farmyard dung 

 tells upon them at once. Dr. Griffiths lays stress upon 

 the fact that animals retain phosphates and nitrogen for 

 the formation of bones, nerves, and muscles, and therefore 

 to some extent rob the land. This fact is, however, entirely 

 over-ridden by the customary importation of extraneous 

 matter on to the farm in the form of foods purchased. 

 The amount of phosphates and nitrogen removed by 

 animals in their bodies is as nothing compared to the tons 

 of cake, meal, hay, and even roots which are imported. 

 Neither must we forget the town manure which is so often 

 bought by farmers, and which will compensate for such a 

 loss as that which Dr. Griffiths fears. Too much pro- 

 minence is given to chemical manures, and too little 

 importance is attached to stock-feeding as a manurial 

 agency. Dr. Griffiths quotes many writers upon matters 

 on which they are scarcely to be regarded as authorities. 

 On such matters he might just as well have told us 

 his opinion, instead of backing it up with the name of a 

 solicitor who has been dead for years and whom nobody 

 now knows of. Neither is an agriculturist, pure and 

 simple, an authority on a chemical point such as the 



^ valuation of farmyard manure on the basis of its chemical 



I constituent parts. 



' Dr. Griffiths claims to have made a discovery with 

 regard to the use of iron sulphate as a fertilizer, and a 

 good deal of space is devoted to this subject, which is not 

 without interest. Haifa hundredweight of iron sulphate per 

 acre produces extraordinary results, according to experi- 

 ments recorded in this book. No doubt this is Dr. Griffiths's 

 great point, and far be it from us to detract from its 

 significance. If it is as potent a fertilizer as Dr. Griffiths 

 thinks, we shall probably hear more of it. He is evidently 

 not the man to let the matter rest. W. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Histoire Nature lie des C^taces des Mers d^ Europe. By 

 P. J. Van Beneden. Pp. 664. (Brussels : F. Hayez. 

 1889.) 



It is fifty-three years since the veteran Professor of 

 Zoology in the University of Louvain published his first 

 paper on the Cetacea, entitled " Caract^res specifiques 

 des grands Cetaces tirds de la conformation de I'oreile 

 osseuse." During the greater part of this long period he 

 has made this group of animals especially his own, 

 having industriously collected from every available source 

 information upon them, which he has given to the world, 

 not only in his great works on the osteology of the 

 Cetacea and the fossil Cetacea of Antwerp, but also in a 

 series of memoirs which have appeared from time to 

 time in the publications of the Belgian Academy of 

 Sciences. During the last three years the " Mdmoires 

 couronnes et autres Mdmoires," published by that learned 



body in octavo form, have contained a number of articles 

 from his pen upon the Cetacea of the European seas, and 

 it has been a happy idea of the author to collect these 

 together, and republish them in a handy form, so as to 

 render them accessible to many who would have difficulty 

 in referring to them when scattered throughout the pages 

 of the journal in which they first appeared. 



The work treats systematically of all the species known 

 to inhabit any of the seas by which Europe is surrounded, 

 and under each species are sections devoted to the 

 literature, the history, the synonymy, the characters, the 

 organization, the habits, the geographical distribution, 

 the mode of capture, the museums in which specimens 

 are known to exist, the published figures, and finally an 

 account of the commensals and parasites which dwell 

 upon or within them. On all these subjects the informa- 

 tion given is derived from years of close and diligent 

 gathering, and the result is an exhaustive account of our 

 present knowledge of the European Cetacea. As a book 

 of reference to all who are engaged in the study of 

 cetology this work is absolutely invaluable, and if figures, 

 even in outline, of all the species had been added, it 

 might have gone far to occupy the place of the much- 

 needed popular hand-book of this still little understood, 

 though interesting order of mammals. 



The number of species admitted is judiciously re- 

 stricted, many of those appearing in previous works being 

 relegated either definitely or provisionally to synonyms. 

 Twenty-six are, however, left, all undoubtedly distinct 

 forms. Of these, seven are whalebone whales, viz. 

 Balcena biscayensis, B. inysticetus, Megaptera boops, 

 Bal(E7ioptera rostrata, B. borealis, B. musculits, and 

 B. sibbaldii J five are Ziphioids, viz. Physeter nia- 

 crocepJialus, Hyperobdoii rostratus, Ziphius cavirostris, 

 Micropterus sowerbyi, and Dioplodon europcBus ; and 

 the remaining fourteen are Delphinoids, viz. Phoccena 

 communis, Orca gladiator, Pseudorca crassidens, 

 Globicephalus uielas. Grampus griseus, Lagenorhynchus 

 albirostris, L. acutus, Eudelphinus delphis, Tur slops 

 iursio, Prodelphinus tethyos, P. dubius, Steno rostratus, 

 DelpJdnopterus leucas, and Monodon monoceros. The 

 only exceptions we can take to this nomenclature are the 

 adoption of the generic term Micropterus in preference 

 to Mesoplodon, as the former was preoccupied by a genus 

 of Coleoptera, and the use of the needless term Eudel- 

 phinus for the common dolphin. If this should be gene- 

 rally accepted, the good old Linnean genus Delp)hinus 

 would disappear altogether from the list. That it should 

 be greatly restricted by the lopping off of aberrant 

 branches was inevitable, but surely the name might have 

 been left for such a characteristic species. 



W. H. F. 



Hand-book of Practical Botany for the Botanical Labor- 

 atory and Private Student. By E. Strasburger. 

 Edited, from the German, by W. Hillhouse, M.A., 

 F.L.S. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. With 

 116 original and 33 additional Illustrations. (London: 

 Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1889.) 



The first edition of Prof. Hillhouse's translation of 

 Strasburger's "Practical Botany" was reviewed in 

 Nature (vol. xxxv. p. 556). The new edition has been 

 considerably enlarged, and is now intermediate in extent 

 between the smaller and the larger German editions. 

 The new matter, mainly derived from the larger " Botan- 

 isches Practicum," second edition, adds greatly to the 

 value of the book. The most important additions are 

 the accounts of the reproduction of Fucus and of Chara, 

 and of the fertilization and embryology of Picea. The 

 much fuller description of the reproduction of Mucor 

 must also be noticed, as well as the considerable altera- 

 tions, affecting both text and figures, in the chapters on 

 vascular bundles. Further, the structure of the grain 

 of wheat is now described — a very useful addition. 



