4IO 



NATURE 



[December 25, 1919 



the "Chemists and Druggists" began to organise 

 themselves, and " at a public meeting of the Trade 

 held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on 

 April 15th " of the same year, it was resolved 

 " that for the purpose of protecting the permanent 

 interests, and increasing the respectability of 

 Chemists and Druggists, an Association be now 

 formed under the title of the Pharmaceutical 

 Society of Great Britain." 



Notwithstanding the various Pharmacy Acts, it 

 cannot be seriously contended that the pharmacist 

 has established any prior or prescriptive rights to 

 the title "chemist." Scientific chemists existed in 

 this country long before 1852, and were so 

 termed : we have only to name Boyle, Black, 

 Priestley, Cavendish, Dalton, Davy, and Wollas- 

 ton in proof of this fact ; pharmacists themselves 

 could only designate such men as chemists, but 

 they were in nowise pharmacists or druggists. 

 Perhaps, therefore, the pharmacists would still 

 further increase their respectability by dropping 

 their pretensions to a title to which they have no 

 valid right. 



The chemist, properly so-called, will find 

 little in Mr. Pilcher's book with which he is not 

 already familiar, or will not wholly agree. 

 The work, indeed, is not specially addressed to 

 him. It is primarily intended for those who in- 

 tend to take up chemistry as a- profession, and 

 to practise ultimately either as a consultant or as 

 an analytical chemist, research chemist, or works 

 chemist, or who seek to enter one of the Govern- 

 ment Departmental or Municipal Laboratories, 

 etc., and on leaving school wish to begin the 

 necessary training. The book may be recom- 

 mended to parents and also to schoolmasters, who 

 are often the best judges of a boy's aptitudes, 

 but, from their lack of knowledge of the 

 many openings that chemistry affords, and of 

 the proper course to pursue in order to enter 

 the profession, are at a loss to offer sound 

 advice. 



Mr. Pilcher has a pleasant literary style ; his 

 book is eminently readable, and contains many 

 facts of general interest. It is not often that he 

 will be found tripping, but the sentence at the 

 bottom of p. 120 concerning the appointment of 

 Medical Officers of Health as Public Analysts 

 requires amendment. Certain of the lines have 

 apparently been transposed either in the galley or 

 during the paging of the book. 



FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS. 

 (i) A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and 

 Ferns. By Dr. J. C. Willis. (Cambridge Bio- 

 logical Series.) Fourth edition, revised and re- 

 written. Pp. xii-t-712 -f iv. (Cambridge: At 

 the University Press, 1919.) Price 20i'. net. 



(2) The Living Cycads. By Prof. C. J. Chamber- 

 lain. (University of Chicago Science Series.) 

 Pp. xiv-(-i72. (Chicago: The University of 

 Chicago Press ; London : Cambridge University 

 Press, 1919.) Price i.^o dollars net. 



(3) British Ferns and How to Identify Them. 



NO. 2617, VOL. 104] 



By J. H. Crabtree. Pp. 64. (London : The 

 Epworth Press: J. Alfred Sharp, n.d.) Price 

 IS. 6d. net. 

 (i) TN the fourth edition of his "Dictionary of 

 i the Flowering Plants and Ferns," Dr. 

 Willis has achieved the ideal form in arrange- 

 ment, the sweeping together of the whole of the 

 material into one alphabetical sequence. Part 1. 

 of the original edition, a somewhat sketchy and 

 unequal account of the morphology, natural 

 history, taxonomy, distribution, and economic uses 

 of the phanerogams and ferns, has been 

 eliminated, and the gain of space has been use- 

 fully employed in enlarging the scope of the mam 

 portion of the work. Dr. Willis claims that he 

 has now found it possible to include all the 

 genera, and though the expert in taxonomy may 

 note a few omissions, the general botanist or 

 student for whom the work is intended will not 

 be critical on this heading. The book is, in fact, 

 a remarkable compendium of botanical informa- 

 tion, including not only the genera, which are re- 

 ferred to their family, and accorded some descrip- 

 tive matter varying from a bare statement of geo- 

 graphical distribution to a paragraph, but also 

 the families, which are treated in detail according 

 to their relative size and importance. A useful 

 feature is the inclusion of a great many popiilar 

 names of plants and a large number of botanical 

 terms, though the latter are much more ex- 

 haustively treated in Dr. Daydon Jackson s 

 classic work. There are also a few general 

 articles, such as one on "Collecting," and on con- 

 cepts such as the leaf, inflorescence, fruit, etc., 

 in which numerous cross-references are given to 

 other headings. 



There are occasional suggestions that the 

 author might perhaps have spread his net a little 

 more widely for his sources of information ; and 

 a brief list of standard works of reference, such as 

 Dr. Jackson's "Glossary of Botanic Terms, 

 Britten and Holland's "Dictionary of English 

 Plant Names," and others, might with advantage 

 have occupied one of the blank spaces at the 

 beginning or end of the volume. 



(2) The little volume entitled "The Living 

 Cycads " is one of the University of Chicago 

 Science Series, which aims at providing a medium 

 of publication intermediate between the short 

 article of the technical journal and the elaborate 

 treatise ; the volumes are written not only for the 

 specialist, but also for the educated layman. Prof. 

 Chamberlain has travelled round the world in order 

 to study in their native habitats the widely 

 separate genera of this group, remarkable for the 

 peculiar habit, form, and structure of the plants, 

 and for their great botanical interest as the sur- 

 viving remnants of a line which reaches back 

 through Mesozoic into Palffiozoic times. During 

 the last fifteen years the author has spent long 

 periods of study in Mexico, Cuba, Africa, and 

 Australia, and the work in the field has been con- 

 tinued in the laboratory by himself and his 

 pupils. The subject-matter is divided into three 



