January 14, 1915] 



NATURE 



529 



He did much sound and valuable work in entomo- 

 logy, and at the age of twenty-four was elected 

 into the Royal Society. He had already made the 

 acquaintance of many well-known scientific men. 



.And then in i860 came the " Origin. " Lubbock 

 warmly grasped the principle of evolution. The 

 same year he saw Boucher de Perthes at Abbe- 

 ville; he satisfied himself as to the human manu- 

 facture of its stone implements, and that they 

 were contemporary with the mammoth. In 1865 

 he published "Prehistoric Times." Darwin wrote, 

 "Though 30U have necessarily only compiled the 

 materials, your general result is most original." 

 He w^as then contesting Maidstone and was ad- 

 vised to keep the book back, but thought it 

 " would be scarcely honourable " ; it is believed to 

 have increased the majority against him. It is 

 rather remarkable that Mr. Hutchinson thinks his 

 writing wanting in "style." Darwin in this re- 

 spect, and he was no mean judge, thought the 

 book "perfection." A little later he showed that 

 our bronze implements were not, as supposed, of 

 Roman date, and he established against Ferguson 

 the prehistoric age of Stonehenge and Avebury. 

 He secured what was left of the latter from de- 

 struction by the builder. 



The "Origin of Civilisation" followed in 1870. 

 Frazer admits that it contributed to his own 

 opinions as to the evolution of religion and society, 

 and that Lubbock had anticipated him as to the 

 relation between magic and religion, and the 

 priority of the former. 



In his later life he occupied himself with geology 

 and botany, but always from an evolutionary point 

 of view. The former won him the Prestwich 

 medal. He was a keen observer ; when exploring 

 with Huxley and Tyndall the lake-dwellings in the 

 Lake of Geneva, he dived more than once after a 

 supposed stone axe, and he produced consterna- 

 tion amongst Swiss geologists by finding num- 

 mulites in a rock mapped as Triassic. His botani- 

 cal work has been thought to deal too much with 

 the trite and obvious, and perhaps it was so to the 

 instructed. But our scientific knowledge is too 

 much a thing apart from ordinary life, and Lub- 

 bock wanted to extend its field ; no one could be 

 more competent for the task. His "British Wild 

 Flowers considered in Relation to Insects " would 

 be a revelation to most people. The later " Notes 

 on the Life History of British Flowering Plants " 

 show that mere " collecting " leaves the problem 

 of every species untouched. In his great work on 

 " Seedlings " he availed himself of the help of 

 others ; it breaks new ground which still awaits a 

 generalisation. 



In literature he has been subject to the same 

 criticism. The answer is the wide-world popu- 

 NO. 2359, VOL. 94] 



larity of his writings ; the " Pleasures of Life " 

 "was the first book ever published in the Soudan." 

 " Best Books " are on every bookstall. 



Lubbock was an optimist. He enjoyed life and 

 laboured that his fellow-creatures might enjoy it 

 more. To that end, as Lord Buxton tells us, he 

 could suppress " interest and desire " if they con- 

 flicted with his purpose. His life has been de- 

 scribed by one who knew him well as "one of the 

 most useful that was ever lived." It is a worthy 

 epitaph. 



ARBORICULTURE AXD FORESTRY. 

 Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles. 

 By W. J. Bean. 2 volumes. Vol. i. Pp. 

 xvi + 68S. Vol. ii. Pp. vi + 736. (London: 

 John Murray, 1914) Price 425. net, two 

 vols. 



THE appearance of this book, the work 

 of the Assistant Curator of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, will be welcomed by 

 all who are interested in hardy trees and 

 shrubs, for it is the best and most compre- 

 hensive work upon the subject that has appeared 

 since the advent of "Loudon's Encyclopaedia of 

 Trees and Shrubs," more than seventy years ago. 

 The need for such a work has long been evident, 

 for Loudon's book is hopelessly out of date, not only 

 by reason of the large number of plants which 

 have been introduced in the intervening years, 

 but also on account of the many changes which 

 modern research have necessitated in nomen- 

 clature. Since Loudon wrote his famous book 

 the rich regions of western North America, Chile, 

 China, Japan, and other countries have been ran- 

 sacked for horticultural treasures, and the scope 

 of the present work places good descriptions of 

 these and other woody plants in an easily avail- 

 able form. 



The book is divided into two parts, the first 

 being devoted to chapters on cultural require- 

 ments and various special subjects, whilst the 

 latter is given up to descriptive matter. The 

 opening chapter gives an interesting epitome of 

 the history of the introduction of hardy exotic 

 trees and shrubs to the British Isles between the 

 middle of the sixteenth century and the present 

 date, due credit being given to the many nursery- 

 men, collectors, and private individuals who 

 encouraged and made such work possible. 

 Following this are chapters upon propagation, 

 hybridising and selection, nursery work, trans- 

 planting, arrangement of shrubberies, staking and 

 other means of support, pruning, care of old trees, 

 evergreen trees and shrubs, climbing shrubs, 

 pendulous trees, fastigiate or erect-branched 



