KNOWI.I.DC.l' 



August, 1912. 



physical, and chemical. New work on the seed from every 

 ftide cannot fail to he of service in contribntiiiK to the store of 

 knowlcdtje concorninn the evolntion, structure, :ind physiolojjy 

 of the most complex orKan in the venclaMc kin^'dom. l''or 

 this reason botanists will wclconu' Mr. (jnppy's book, which 

 shows how nmch cm be done in plant physiology by the nse 

 of the simplest possible methods of experimei\tation. .. ^ 



(■.1:01.1 )C.V. 



/•;</;•//! I'ciiliiics mill lluir Mcaniitn.—Uy W. II. llolilis. 



."iOd pages. 24 plates. 4^3 illustrations. 9-in. X f)in. 



(Macinillan & Co. Price 12/6 net.) 



This book K'ves in expanded form the substance of a scries 

 of lectures delivered at the University of Michigan. W'c 

 may say at once that if the lectures were delivered as 

 interestingly as they are written, the students h.id a most 

 instructive and fascinatiTiK experience. The book deals with 

 t,'(Milot^ical principles elucidated from the character of the 

 ilitli rent earth fe.itures as these ;irc found in their respective 

 environments. The book not only caters for students but 

 also for tourists and travellers, and is intended to help them 

 to have a keener and more seeinji eye for the landscapes 

 lhrouF;h which they are constantly passing. Stress is con- 

 tinu.tlly laid on the character-profiles of the land as due to 

 various at,'euls such as wind, ice, and runniiifj water, so that 

 he who runs about tlii^ e.irth may read with (,'rcater ease the 

 more sifjnilicant lines in the nioviiif^ landscape, and add 

 notably to the pleasure of his journeying. To further this 

 aim, most of the examples and illustrations have been drawn 

 from well-known tourist routes, and suggestions concerning 

 the itinerary of geological journeys are supplied in a long 

 ;ippendix. 



I'liis is a textbook with a decidedly original outlook. It 

 diU'ers from most others in not attempting to combine in ,1 

 single text historical with dynamical and structural geology. 

 The author applauds the tendency, rightly as wo think, to 

 treat historical geology especially as a subject in itself. The 

 inclusion of all branches of geological science in a single text- 

 book renders it unnecessarily encyclopaedic and repels the 

 general reader. The book is written in an easy, pleasant 

 style, devoid of formality, the only blemish of which is an 

 inordinate use of the split infinitive. It is extremely valuable to 

 students in that it presents in a popular form the latest results 

 of research in dynamical get)logy ; for which we are mainly 

 indebted to American geologists. Written by an American 

 and with most of the examples and illustrations of American 

 origin, the book is pervaded by the wide continental atmosphere 

 which is .so needful as a corrective for the insular experience 

 of most ICuropcan geologists. As a typical example of the 

 wider view we note that the parallel roads of Glen Roy are 

 used merely as introductory to a fascinating account of the 

 enormously greater glacial lakes of North America, which were 

 the precursors of the present great lakes of the St. Lawrence 

 basin. Glaciers and their work, past .lud present, occupy a 

 little less than half the work, on the ground that glaciers have 

 shaped most of the prominent earth features near the colleges 

 and universities in northern North America and Europe. 



The book is illustrated by twenty-four plates and nearly 

 five hundred line drawings, many of which are extremely good. 

 It is dilhcnlt, however, to make anything of a few of tin- 

 drawings, notably Figures 110 and 209, which are too slight 

 to be at all informative. There are .ippendices dealing 

 respectively with the quick determination of the couunon 

 minerals and the short descriptions of the couunon rocks, but 

 it is difficult to see their use in a textbook of this kind. More- 

 over, they are inconsistent with the author's expressed views 

 that geological textbooks are overloaded by attempting to 

 deal with all .ispccts of th(^ subject. Further appendices on 

 the preparation of topogr.iphical maps ;ind laboratory models 

 for study in the interpretation of geological maps, describing 

 some ingenious apparatus for this work, stand in a different 

 category. To each chapter of the book a brief but \ aluahlc 

 and up-to-date set of reading references is appended. 



(_;. W . 1. 



The Student's Htiiidbook of Stratiiiaiphical Gcolony. 



2nd i:d. -Hy A. J. Jukks-Brow.sk, H.A., F.K.S. 668 pages. 



210 illustrations. K-in. XSj-in. 



(Edward Stanford. Price 12/- net.) 



Stratigraphy, even if confined to Britain alone, is now far 

 too large a subject to be dealt with satisfactorily in the 

 encyclopaedic textbook of geology. Hence one notes with 

 approval the appearance of this work as indicative of the 

 recent tendency to treat stratigraphy as a subject in itself, 

 worthy of exhaustive and specialised treatment. The author, 

 than whom no one is more (pialified to write on British 

 stratigraphy, has revised and partly re-written the account of 

 the British strata appearing in the first edition ; and, more- 

 over, has added more complete accounts of the continental 

 representatives of the various formations. While the British 

 Isles contain a fairly complete epitome of the geological 

 coluirm, some parts of it are missing and others shew 

 abnormal facies. Hence the wider view afforded by a con- 

 current study of the corresponding European strata is a 

 valuable corrective for the insular notions the student is apt 

 to get whose knowledge is confined to the British rocks alone. 

 Mr. Jukes- Browne infuses life into his dry facts by giving a 

 short account of the conditions of deposition and physical 

 geography of each period, a subject he has dealt with, of 

 course in much greater detail, in his " Building of the British 

 Isles." 'i'he description of each system is prefaced by 

 sections on the nomenclature and classification of the strata 

 and on the life of each period, which is illustrated by numerous 

 figures of fossils. At the beginning of the book are three 

 valuable chapters on the often-neglected general principles of 

 stratigraphy, stratigraphical palaeontology, and the literature 

 of historical geology. The latter chapter gives a concise list 

 of the more important works on British stratigraphy. This is 

 supplemented by detailed reference to original work at the 

 end of each chapter. 



The author thinks there is no reason why the terms 

 Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary should not be em- 

 ployed as tiniewords instead of the more cumbrous 

 Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cainozoie, which are based on 

 palaeoiitological facts. The latter terms, however, are so 

 firmly established that we do not think the suggestion will 

 meet the approval of the majority of geologists. On the other 

 hand. Mr. Jukes- Browne would like to abolish another old- 

 established term — none other than the Old Red Sandstone, 

 which he stigmatises as a particularly awkward and unsatisfac- 

 tory name. We are glad to note a good account of recent 

 work in the Highlands of Scotland, an area with which it 

 seems stratigraphers need to be courageous. 



The book is well illustrated with maps and sections, and 

 has an excellent index. It will be indispensable to all students 

 of British geology ;is the fullest and most up-to-date account 

 of our stratigraphy. (^ ^ -j- 



HEREDITY. 



Hcrcility—C'lhe People's Books": No. 101.— By J. A. S. 



W.VTSON, B.Sc, F.R.S.E. 94 pages. 11 illustrations. 



6j-in. X4.j-in. 



(T. C. & E. C. Jack. Price 6d. net.) 



Ill this book iMr. Watson has made a heroic attempt to 

 i:niKlense into ninety very small pages a sketch of the various 

 lines of approach to the solution of problems of heredity. 

 That he has been able to explain so much with such remark- 

 able lucidity in so small a space is nothing short of marvellous: 

 yet one lays down the book with the feeling that the author 

 has been obsessed throughout by the problem that besets the 

 concocter of telegrams, to convey the maximum of information 

 in the minimum of words. The chapters on Mendelism, in 

 particular, arc somewhat overcrowded, .and parts of them 

 might well puzzle a reader having no previous knowledge of 

 the subject : but it would be impossible to deal more clearly 

 with so wide a range of instances without demanding more 

 space. 



The best of the many good points of this carefully-written 

 :iiui wellrc.isoiu'd book is that it emphasises more strongly 



