May 6, 1897] 



NATURE 



v|uite apart from this, some of his own direct observations 

 appear to tell strongly against it. 



The development of the sexual organs in these lower 

 ])lants is much less variably affected by the influence of 

 the surrounding conditions (a very significant fact, even 

 in these primitive forms; than is that of the non-sexual 

 ones. Light, in greater or less intensity, is commonly 

 essential, and, as has been said in connection with 

 Vauc/ieria, it acts both directly as an initiating stimulus, 

 and indirectly as affecting the function of assimilation. 

 Again, cultivation in a small amount of water, together 

 with the absence or at least scarcity of inorganic nutrient 

 salts, encourages their formation ; whilst the addition of 

 the last-named salts commonly suffices at once to check 

 the process, and frequently causes the resumption of 

 vegetative activity. 



The case of Spirogyra is of some special interest in this 

 connection, owing to the remarkable disturbances which 

 the addition of appropriate salts may effect in cultures in 

 which conjugation is freely proceeding. These disturb- 

 ances may take the form, in weak organic salt solutions, 

 of partial arrest of conjugation, the gametes then clothing 

 themselves with a wall while still within their own mother- 

 cells, and finally growing vegetatively as any ordinary 

 separated cell of a filament would do. If, however, the 

 solution be sufficiently concentrated, the gametes develop 

 to form parthenospores indistinguishable, when mature, 

 from true zygospores. Similar effects can be brought 

 about by sugar solutions of appropriate strength. It is 

 important, however, to notice that it is only at certain 

 stages in the development of the gametes that their 

 further development can be arrested, and parthenospore- 

 formalion be induced ; and this, taken together with the 

 varied behaviour exhibited by the different species, em- 

 phasises what has already been said as to the need of 

 taking due account of the " personal equation " of the 

 individual in all inquiries of this kind. 



A number of valuable observations on fungi are also 

 recorded in the book ; but space forbids further mention 

 of them here, beyond the one fact, which may prove of 

 practical use to teachers, namely, that bread-cultures of 

 Eurotitmi can be made to produce archicarps, &c., with 

 certainty in about two days, if kept at a temperature of 

 28=— 29^ C. 



Prof. Klebs, whilst mainly concerned with the problems 

 of the physiology of reproduction, incidentally touches on 

 several points of taxonomic interest, and, in particular, he 



ars up the difficulties which have often been felt with 



_;ard to Bo/rydium, by showing that two distinct organ- 

 isms have been confounded under this name. He pro- 

 poses to separate them into two genera, retaining one of 

 them in the old genus Boiryditini, and creating a new 

 one— Proh>siphon— to include the other. 



It is quite impossible within comparatively moderate 

 limits of space to do justice to the great wealth of observa- 

 tion and experiment recorded in the volume before us ; the 

 work is essentially one which everybody who is interested 

 in the subject ought to study for himself ; and if he finds it 

 rather a bewildering treatise, he will, nevertheless, be amply 

 repaid for his trouble, and may further take comfort from 

 the fact that the author promises another volume in which 

 the points of theoretical interest will be brought more nearly 

 together, and their general bearings discussed. J. B. F. 

 NO. 1436, vol. 56] 



SHAKESPEARIAN NATURAL HISTORY. 

 Natural History in Shakespeare's Time : being Extracts 



illustrati7>e of the Subject as he kncu) it. By H. W. 



Seager. 8vo, pp. viii -f- 358. Illustrated. (London : 



Elliot Stock, 1896.) 

 \X WHETHER, as a student, absorbed in the dry details 

 V V of systematic work, or whether, as a spectator, 

 interested in the marvellous displays of our museums, 

 we of the present day are too apt to forget that natural 

 history has lost one of the greatest of all charms— the 

 charm of the unknown and the mysterious. To us a new 

 animal merely fills one more gap— it may be large or it 

 may be small— in the chain of nature ; its interest, 

 unless it be of striking form and beauty, or have some- 

 thing out of the common in its structure, being generally 

 confined to the specialist. Not so the naturalist (save the 

 mark I) of Shakespeare's day. To him the voyager, on 

 his return to his native land, brought some new legend 

 of the cockatrice, the mermaid, the phoenix, or the unicorn, 

 or told of creatures the like of which had never before 

 been heard of in heaven or earth. It mattered not that 

 spolia opiina, in the shape of talons, skins, eggs, or feathers, 

 were not to the fore to confirm the story; there the story 

 was, and that sufficed. 



Now that the cold light of science has thrown its ray 

 upon the most remote parts of our globe, there is no 

 longer room for legendary creatures — save the sea- 

 serpent ; and we are told that the mermaid is nothing 

 more than a dugong, a unicorn either a rhinoceros or a 

 Tibetan antelope, while the cockatrice, the phajnix, and 

 the roc appear to be pure imaginations. 



But in the Elizabethan age — an age when the dodo had 

 but recently been discovered — these, and many other myth- 

 ical creatures, were, if not living, at all events actual reali- 

 ties to the ordinary public, and as sucli were referred to in 

 the works of the great dramatist and other contemporary 

 writers. We meet, for instance, in the JFinter's Tale 

 the line, " Make me not sighted like the basilisk," and in 

 the Tempest, " Now I will believe that there are uni- 

 corns." But not only was more or less of credulity given 

 to the existence of these and such-like fabulous monsters, 

 but a web of mystic lore encircled the most common and 

 best known of beasts, birds, and fishes. Who, for instance, 

 is forgetful of the popular superstitions connected with 

 the salamander, the newt, and the blindworm, and who 

 fails to remember White's account of the " shrew-ash " at 

 Selborne ? And if such superstitions still survive among 

 uneducated peasants of the present day, we may be. 

 assured that two centuries ago they were fully believed 

 by the higher classes. 



As the author states in his preface, the work before us 

 " presents in a convenient form for reference a collec- 

 tion of the quaint theories about Natural History accepted 

 by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. . . . The plan 

 of the book is to give some illustration of each word 

 mentioned by Shakespeare when there is anything 

 remarkable to be noted about it." It is added that the 

 term Natural History is taken to include not only plants 

 as well as animals, but likewise some precious stones. 

 It is further stated, that although Shakespeare had a 

 greater knowledge of natural history than many of his 

 contemporaries, yet that even he gave credence to many 



