JANUARY 31, 1907] 
NATURE 
315 
' morograph, &c., instruments which measure changes 
of one-hundredth of an inch or less, though their very 
‘delicacy must introduce sources of error, about which 
nothing is to be found in the book. Worlsers on 
growth will be forced to abandon their primitive and 
clumsy methods, and much good will result from the 
refinements here introduced. 
In conclusion, we can only say that there are 
literally scores of special points of the greatest interest 
raised in the course of this book, which cannot, of 
course, be dealt with here, If the primary desire that 
these points raise is the desire to cross-examine, it is 
to cross-examine, not the author, but the plant itself 
which bears such uniform and honestly-intentioned 
testimony in favour of Dr, Bose’s views. All such 
experimental cross-examination will for the 
progress of knowledge, and we thin'k that Dr. Bose 
can claim that his bool will be an external stimulus 
make 
(if not in his sense at least in ours) to the growth of 
plant physiology and the responses of future investi- 
gators. EF. F. BrackMan. 
THE NORSEMEN IN THE ORKNEYS. 
Monumenta Orcadica. The Norsemen in the Orkneys 
and the Monuments they have left. By L. Diet- 
richson, With original drawings and some chapters 
on St. Magnus Cathedral, (Kirkwall, by Johan 
Meyer. Pp. xiv+200. (Kristiania; London: 
Williams and Norgate, 1906.) Price 3/. net. 
Te handsome quarto volume from the pen of the 
learned head of the Art Museum of Christiania 
is issued in a bi-lingual form, being divided into two 
parts; the first is an abridgment in English of the 
second, which is in Norwegian, It appears at an 
opportune time, when the ties connecting the two 
kingdoms are closer than they have ever been since 
the separation of the islands with which it deals from 
the Seandinavian kingdom on the marriage of the 
daughter of Christian I. to the Scottish king in 
1469. 
Based chiefly upon the importance of the Orkney 
Islands to Norway as a basis in the Middle Ages, and 
on the historical interest attaching to the architectural 
remains of the centuries during which they were ruled 
from that country, the author’s task has been a scien- 
tifie inquiry into every detail connected therewith. 
He displays throughout a most intimate knowledge, 
not only of the Sagas, but of the writings of those 
authors on both sides of the German Ocean who have 
essayed to identify the sites and fix the questions of 
the dates and details of construction of the more 
important erections; and during a visit to the islands 
half a dozen years ago, when he was accompanied 
by Mr. Myers, he had an opportunity of personal 
inspection of the remains, and has produced a work 
that will be heartily welcomed by all students of the 
archeology, history, and architecture of our northern 
isles. 
The introduction deals with the Orkneys and their 
connection with Norway, and with the Orkneys in 
literature, in which the author, after enumerating all 
the islands and parishes with their Norse derivatives, 
NO. 1944, VOL. 75] 
adjusts a few of them according to his own re- 
searches, describes their scenery, climate, and natural 
history, and gives a list of »many Norse words 
surviving in the names of homesteads and in ‘the 
dialect; the Roman, Norse, and Scottish authors 
whose writings have constituted the sources of the 
history of the islands are also briefly referred to. In 
order to present the work as a continuous whole, the 
author has included the pre- and post-Norwegian 
periods, and divided it into three books, dealing re- 
spectively with the prehistoric, the Norwegian, and 
the Scottish remains. He is in full accord with all 
other Norse scholars in repudiating the idea of a 
Scandinavian origin for the sepulchral chambers, 
stone standing stones, and brochs which 
abound all over the islands; these he briefly describes, 
without, however, committing himself to any of the 
various theories that have been urged regarding them, 
and relegates them all to a period anterior to A.D. 600. 
From that period to a.p. 872 is assigned to an early 
Celtic Christian occupancy, that of the Peti and 
Pape. The distinguishing architectural features of 
their chapels are pointed out, six existing ruins are 
enumerated, while from saintly dedications and Saga 
records the sites of eight additional ones that have 
disappeared have been identified. 
The Norse period 872 to 1468 is the most important 
and interesting portion of the worl; there is already 
a large amount of literature dealing with this period, 
and to those who have been nurtured on the contri- 
butions of Munch, Dryden, Anderson and others there 
may be much of detail to unlearn by those who accept 
the author’s views. At the same time, the older works 
suffer nothing by the comparison; in fact, any faithful 
interpretation or correlation of facets, both historical 
and monumental, could hardly have been looked for 
until after the publication of the Rolls edition of the 
Icelandic Sagas in 1887. Prof. Dietrichson opens it 
with a wave of emigration from Norway to the 
island of Sanday, where he supposes the first strong- 
hold of the earls to have been established. The monu- 
ments are chronologically arranged; the first group 
comprises the remains assigned by the author up to 
the end of the tenth century, and embraces the tumuli 
bearing the names of the Saga characters who are 
recorded as having met their death in the Orkneys 
and as far south as the Oykell in Sutherland, the 
Norse burial mounds being distinguished from the 
Celtic ‘‘ cairns ’’? by their having been constructed, not 
of stones, but of earth ‘‘ barrows,’’ as well as a few 
churches and the Norse earls’ palace as Birsay. 
With the eleventh century the interest increases; 
among the more important items which are new may 
be mentioned the confirmation of the opinion that the 
Thing-stead was held in Rendall, in opposition to the 
popular belief that it was at Stenness. The question 
of the time of the erection of the unique St. Magnus 
Church -on -Egilshay, which has been a puzzle to 
antiquaries for a long time, has been focussed for 
various assigned reasons into the three years immedi- 
ately following the murder of the earl on that island, 
that is, 1135-8. 
Ecclesiologists who have been searching for the 
cireles, 
