October io, 1918] 



NATURE 



"5 



problems to which the) continue to p^ve risi rhi 

 numbers of women 

 lends additional impetus to the demand for means of 

 more extended facilities ol adull education, which is, 

 after all, to 1"- regarded as essential for men and 

 women alike, however greal ma) be the development 

 in the education ol i hildi i n and adolescents. 



An interesting revii w is given of the present facilities 

 of adull education as exemplified in the I niversitj 

 Extension system, that of the Adult Sunda) School, 

 tin Workers' Educational Association, Ruskin 

 the Working Men's I olleges, and other 

 bodii s, including the work of the local education 

 authorities, but the conclusion is rapidly reached that 

 so long esenl economii conditions prevail 



nd other means of educational progress must 

 remain short of their full harvest, and the nation In- 

 left vastly poorer thereby. The evil conditions which 

 beset the worker and hinder his full educational and 

 social development are the subject of careful review. 

 The) are found in the abnormal length of the working- 

 day in most industries in the heavy and exhausting 

 work in others, in the demands of excessive overtime, 

 lifl system and thai ol "split turns," in night- 

 work, continuous or periodic, in the evil effects ol 

 continuous, monotonous labour, and, finally, in the 

 ol employment which besets many workers 

 in industi ial and i ui al 01 ( upations. 



Proposals are made to shorten b) law the working- 

 day, so that it shall not exceed, with some qualifii i- 

 tions. eight hours in an) industry; that in heavy, ex- 

 hausting kinds of work tb li gal working-da) shall 

 be shorter than the normal, and, where possible, 

 mechanical devices introduced, such occupations to be 

 speciall) regulated; thai overtimi and "shift-work" 

 shall be the subjeel of legal regulation and reduced to 

 a minimum; ami that regular night-work shall be pro- 

 hibited, whether periodic or continuous, except where 

 ii is absolutely necessary. With the view of meeting 

 the evils of continuous, monotonous labour, alternating 

 bums ,it employment are suggested, and tin- establish- 

 ment "I works committees fot the consideration ol 



mallei, .ill, i line workshop life. Measures should also 



lie taken to minimise the ruinous effects of unemploy- 

 ment b) the reorganisation of industry or the extension 



of the principle of insurance. Other measures of reform 

 an also suggested with respeel to schemes of housing 



and town-planning, in order to secure better domestic 



conditions and pleasanter surroundings for the worker, 

 and there should be established in every village an 

 instiiute or hall under public control. An eloquent 

 testimony is offered at the conclusion of the report in 

 the splendid qualities and potentialities Intent in our 

 is shown by their sacrifices in the present 

 disastrous w ir, which rendei them worthy of any 

 effort to improve and make worthv their conditions of 



life. 



Thl suggestions in the reporl are made bv men and 

 w.micn experienced not Only in education, but also in 

 ; i! conditions of industrial life, and mav be 

 commended to the earnest consideration of all who are 

 responsible for the future well-being of the nation. 

 in n the pre-conditions ol any form of effective 

 adult education. 



I MONOGRAPH OX COW-WHEAT. 



TV/T G. BEA1 VERD'S "Monographic du genre 

 l»±. Melampyrum," which h - recenth appeared 

 i \l£moires de la ?o te el d'Histoin 



naturelle de Geneve, vol. xxxviii . fascicule b), is an 

 intensive stud) ol a genus carried out under the serious 

 limitations imposed i, v the present war conditions. 

 Melampyrum, tin- British cow-wheat, which is repre- I 

 2554, VOL. 102 1 



sented in our flora bv tour spei ies, is one. of a small 

 enera 1 I imil) Scrophulariaceae, which 



are characterised b) a hi ii habit. They are 



small hei bat eous plani aw part of "their 



nourishment from other plants, to the roots of which 

 the) become atta. lied b\ ,m I ,,.„,| upon their 



own roots. Many of them ha , 'peculiarity of 



turning black on drying. 



Ill, genus, fourteen species ol 1 ii .cognised 



by M. Beauverd, is widely distributed in the northern 

 hemisphere. There are four areas of distribution: a 

 North American, extending right aero ihent; 



an Eurasiatic, comprising the greater part of Lurope 

 with Central Asia; an eastern Mediterran 

 and a Far East or Chinese and Japanese area. \I. 

 Beauverd 's work, so far as the systematic stud . 



led, is very largely based on the 

 material in th. various pufch: ind privet Swiss 1 

 tions, which, though rich in a representation of Cen 

 European forms, would naturally contain a less exten- 

 sive series from other areas. His knowledge of British 

 forms is derived almost exclusively from Mr. G. C. 

 I)i uce's collection, which he has had the opportunity 

 id studying. The author has not consulted the- great 

 British and Russian herbaria, apart from which the 

 study of the central and eastern Asiatic forms must 

 be far from complete. Further, in the svstematic 

 study of a genus it is of importance to examine the 

 original specimens on which previously described 

 spe, ies and varieties are based, and a large proportion 

 of these are to be found only outside the circum- 

 scribed area of AI. Beauverd's studies. The limita- 

 tions under which the work has been carried out must, 

 therefore, necessarily lead to a want of balance between 

 the treatment of the Central European forms and of 

 those occurring outside that area and to a lack of 

 completeness in the systematic scheme. 



Within the limits imposed M. Beauverd has made 

 good use of the material available. He has studied 

 in the field the range of variation of species and forms, 

 and by a careful microscopic study of the details of 

 the flower, the technique of which he describes at 

 some length, he has convinced himself of the relative 

 value of fixed qualitative and variable quantitative 

 characters in the discrimination of species and of in- 

 ferior grades of relationship. Thus M. Beauverd re- 

 gards the two different methods of dehiscence of the 

 fruit, to which he had previously directed attention, as 

 affording criteria for the two main divisions of the 

 genus. The author has also noted in some species 

 the presence of a ring of hairs on the inside of the 

 corolla-tube above the base, in such a position as to 

 protect the nectar beneath it from being pillaged by 

 an inject biting through the lower part of the tube; 

 the presence or absence of this " nectarostegium," the 

 minute structure of the hairs associated with the 

 anthers or occurring elsewhere in the flower, and the 

 form of the bracts at the top of the inflorescence, 

 afford constant characters for the differentiation of 

 sections or aid in the diagnosis of the species. 



On the other hand, variable quantitative characters 

 such as the number of joints in hairs of the same 

 plan of struct! . 1 he relative size of flowers or leaves, 

 the number o 1 rile bracts or of stem-nodes bei w een tin 

 root and the inflorescence, the size and frequency 

 the marginal teeth of the bracts, the size of the c 

 teeth, degree of opening of the mouth of the 



corolla, me of value in assigning limits to 

 and varieties. The author's discussion of th> e ioints 

 and their application in the systematic schi 1 1 lopted 

 by htm afford the most interesting ch pi in the 

 memoir. 



Vpart from its value as a contribution to the s\ s. 

 tematic study of the genus, the 1 1 inograph supplies 

 a useful resume of previous work. I first chapter, 



