June 24, 1922" 



NA TURE 



807 



as an active and accurate botanist, a successful 

 cultivator, and generous in imparting his treasures 

 to his friends. For instance, Willem Boel, the 

 Frieslander, gathered seeds in Andalusia for Goodyer, 

 Coys, and Parkinson, which were distributed to 

 friends ; again, from one tuber of the Jerusalem 

 artichoke from Franqueville he raised " a peck of 

 rootes wherewith I stored Hampsheire " in 161 7. 



Upon the death of Johnson, in 1644, Goodyer was 

 unquestionably the foremost botanist in the kingdom, 

 and his hfe overlapped the first anonymous essay of 

 John Ray, his Cambridge flora, in 1660; but he was 

 dead six years before Ray's " Catalogus " saw the 

 light in 1670. 



In addition to his knowledge of plants Goodyer 

 knew enough Greek to translate the two works of 

 Theophrastus, " De plantis " and " De causis plan- 

 tarum " ; of the former we have now an English 

 version by Sir Arthur Hort in the Loeb . Library, 

 but the latter has never been printed in our language. 

 Later, he began copying out the Greek text of the 

 " Materia medica " of Dioscorides and to interline it 

 with an English translation. 



Nearly half of Mr, Gunther's volume is devoted to 

 " Notes on contemporary botanists, mostly from 

 Goodyer's Books and Papers." We thus become 

 acquainted with his relations with other botanists, 

 several of whom are unfamiliar, while many more are 

 only slightly known to us, and from these pages we gain 

 much. Among these may be mentioned William Coys 

 of Stubbers in Essex; William How, the author of 

 the first British flora and editor of Lobel's last issued 

 work ; John Parkinson, the last of the herbalists ; the 

 Rev. Walter Stonehouse, and William Browne of 

 Magdalen, ,to whom his college probably owed the 

 bequest by Goodyer of his books and papers, the 

 foundation of the volume now under discussion. 



The limits of this notice forbid any further dwelling 

 on the contents of a volume of the greatest value and a 

 treasure-house to everybody who is interested in 

 British botany. 



One unimportant error may be mentioned as occur- 

 ring on page 84, namely, that of Mattioli's Commentaries 

 on the " Materia medica " of Dioscorides : seventeen 

 editions were said to be published ; the actual number 

 was nearly seventy, for Saccardo speaks of sixty at 

 least, and he was not acquainted with all. But we 

 close the volume with feelings of gratitude to the 

 author; his zeal and devotion have added greatly 

 to our appreciation of the Hampshire and Sussex 

 botanist, whose record does so much to redeem the 

 time when he lived from being considered a barren 

 period for the science of botany. 



B. D. J. 

 NO. 2747, VOL. 109] 



Functions of Industrial Research. 



Research in Industry : The Basis of Economic Progress. 

 By A. P. M. Fleming and J. G. Pearce. (Pitman's 

 Industrial Administration Series.) Pp. xvi + 244. 

 (London : Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1922.) 

 los. 6d. net. 



THE case for research and education as the best 

 means of assuring progress in industry is most 

 ably demonstrated by Messrs. Fleming and Pearce, who 

 are well known for their association in directing the 

 Research Department of the Metropolitan-Vickers 

 Electrical Co. Ltd., of Manchester. The book covers a 

 very wide field, and should be read by all who are 

 engaged either in scientific work or in industrial ad- 

 ministration. The social aspects of the subject are 

 kept well in view and the great importance which the 

 scientific study of the human factor in industry is 

 destined to take in the resettlement of industry is 

 duly recognised, although the work of the Industrial 

 Fatigue Board receives less attention than it deserves. 



The various types of research laboratories and 

 methods of research organisation, including the com- 

 paratively new co-operative method illustrated in 

 British Reseatch Associations, are dealt with in detail. 

 Considerable space is devoted to the planning, equip- 

 ment, and staffing of works research laboratories, and 

 the financial aspect is dealt with more fully than in 

 any previous publication. 



An interesting chapter deals with the collection 

 and distribution of information for research and 

 industrial purposes. The problem of making an in- 

 telligence department of a works library efficiently 

 productive might with advantage have been elaborated 

 further, in view of the authors' special experience. 

 Although there is need for greater co-ordination 

 among the many agencies for collecting and abstracting 

 scientific information, the necessity for its distribution 

 to and absorption by the industries is infinitely more 

 important. The British scientific worker is, perhaps, 

 less thorough than his fellow-workers abroad in survey- 

 ing the field of previous work on the problem he is 

 investigating, and, indeed, excessive zeal in this direc- 

 tion may tend to limit originality and initiative. In 

 industry, however, numerous examples of wasted 

 opportunity and moribund conditions could be quoted 

 which are due largely to ignorance of similar industrial 

 practice in other countries. The awakening of in- 

 quisitiveness as to foreign methods of manufacture 

 might prove the starting-point for a still greater re- 

 ceptivity among employers, and from this the step to 

 a conviction of the desirability of actual original 

 research is relatively small, as American experience has 

 abundantly shown. Europe, in fact, in competing 



