OS eee 
a 
published at a popular price. 
DECEMBER 4, 1913] 
NATURES 397 
was published two years ago, and the two together 
are already standard introductions to the modern 
developments of the study of mind. He prefixes 
as a motto the words of Giard—“ L’idée de science 
est intimement liée a celle de mécanisme et de 
déterminisme.’’ But, as students are aware, the 
point of view is not a temperamental or senti- 
mental aversion from the “finalists”; it merely 
represents the extraordinary precision which the 
new methods have introduced into what was once 
the vaguest and most fantastic of studies. Both 
account and criticism are excellent, as of selection 
of movements, the theory of trial and error, the 
incompleteness of adaptation. 
The analysis of some special “instincts,” viz., 
feigning death, return to rest, the search for food, 
mimicry, social “instincts,” is a valuable part of 
the book. Equally valuable and especially in- 
teresting is the discussion of methods, such as the 
Dressurmethode (the training of animals), Vexier- 
kasten (puzzle boxes), labyrinths, &c. One of the 
newest is that of Pawlow, to which is devoted the 
largest section. The chief work of the great 
Russian physiologists, Pawlow, Zéliony, and 
Orbéli, is based on their remarkable tests of 
psychical saliva-reaction, as yet not so well known 
in England as they deserve. 
A, E. Craw ey. 
POPULAR BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
(1) Plant Life. By Prof. J. Bretland Farmer. 
Pp. viiit+255. (London: Williams and Nor- 
gate, n.d.) Price rs. net. 
(2) Toadstools and Mushrooms of the Country- 
side. By Edward Step. Pp. xvi+143+136 
plates. (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1913.) 
rice, (Sse net. 
(3) Wild Flower Preservation. By May Coley. 
Pp. 181+29 plates. (London: T. Fisher 
Unwin, n.d.) Price 3s. 6d. net. 
(3) N this welcome addition to the well-known 
“Home University Library,” Prof. Farmer 
has produced a work which, owing to its fresh- 
ness of treatment of various problems of plant 
life, will be useful to students of botany, besides 
fulfilling admirably the object of the series of 
which it forms part—namely, the popularising of 
knowledge and the creation as well as the satis- 
faction of a desire among general readers for 
really authoritative and accurate, though simpli- 
fied, treatises on various branches of knowledge, 
The keynote of the 
book is the presentation of the main features of 
plant form from the viewpoint of function, and 
the author has touched upon various matters not 
usually discussed in works of this limited size, 
NO. 2301, VOL. 92] 
instead of simply going over ground already 
covered in numerous books of this scope. 
Of the twenty chapters into which the book is 
divided, the first five deal mainly with the lower 
green alge, and it would be difficult to devise a 
better starting-point than that afforded by these 
simple types, which serve as an admirable intro- 
duction to the study of the fundamental facts 
of plant life. Following an account of the work 
of the green leaf and the root, in which emphasis 
is rightly laid on the manner in which the whole 
conformation of the plant is dominated by the 
leaf or other equivalent green surface, there is an 
admirable chapter on mechanical problems and 
their solution. A large section is then devoted to 
the adaptations shown by climbing and aquatic 
plants and epiphytes, as well as the relations of 
plants in general to water supply. Subsequent 
chapters deal with fungi, fungal and flowering- 
plant parasites, various cases of symbiosis, vege- 
tative and sexual reproduction, and finally the 
nucleus and the process of fertilisation. An 
appendix gives a short but well-chosen biblio- 
graphy. 
(2) Mr. Step’s handy guide to the larger fungi 
is a marvel of cheapness, the excellent photo- 
graphic illustrations being alone well worth the 
price of the book. The cap-fungi lend them- 
selves so well to “popular” treatment, owing to 
the absence of technical terminology in their 
description, that it is perhaps a matter for sur- 
prise that a work of this kind has not been 
published earlier, and there can be little doubt 
that the author’s reputation for the production of 
readable accounts of our native plants, illustrated 
by skilful photographs, will ensure for the present 
work a wide sale. Mr. Step has purposely re- 
frained from dealing with the classification of the 
plants dealt with, but the book would certainly 
have been rendered more useful if he had supplied 
a simplified key for enabling the beginner to 
identify the species described and depicted in the 
book. 
(3) One is inclined to look askance at a book 
the main object of the author of which appears 
to be the advocacy of extensive collecting and 
drying of wild flowers, root and all, rather than 
the other aspect of “wild flower preservation” 
concerning which much has been written recently 
by those who deplore the raids made upon our 
native flora by collectors of various kinds. To be 
quite fair, it must be admitted that the author 
does deprecate greedy and destructive gathering, 
and that her book is written in a pleasant and 
enthusiastic style which to a large extent disarms 
criticism; while her suggestions on the keeping 
of records in a note-book, &c., are likely to prove 
