204 
NA LOLRT: 
| Fan. 18 1883 
remarks which are often found to explain away or totally 
alter the meaning of the text. 
As it is, we would emphasise the prefatory remark of 
the Editor, that “‘the Appendix has come to be an im- 
portant feature” of the book, and is to be especially 
recommended to the notice of the reader. The student 
who will judiciously introduce the new material in this 
appendix into the older structure in the text will be 
afforded a tolerably clear insight into the present stand- 
point of vegetable morphology. 
Book II. forms the largest third of the volume, and 
from a purely critical point of view, was the least satis- 
factory portion of the original. No doubt it was by far 
the most difficult portion to condense into any reasonable 
compass, and it bristled with unknown quantities and 
controverted points, and indeed it may well be doubted if 
the immense subject of ‘ General Morphology and Out- 
lines of Classification ”’ could be fairly well mastered by 
any one botanist. That the editor has added a great 
deal of new material—no doubt assisted by some whose 
criticisms and suggestions he gratefully acknowledges— 
is, on the face of this second book, abundantly clear. 
That a good deal might have been still added is also, on 
a little examination, made apparent. Detailed criticism 
on this portion of the volume would be here to a large 
extent out of place, and serve no good end, but as a 
justification of these remarks we would observe that 
among the very first forms alluded to—the Protophyta 
arranged under the Cyanophyceze—of which the Nosto- 
caceze form a highly interesting group—the description 
of the formation of the Nostce filament, though amended, 
as noted within brackets, is, despite the warning of Bor- 
net, founded on a misconception of Thuret’s account. 
In a footnote, too, we read that Archer has described the 
occurrence of spores in JVostoc paludosum, as if this 
were something novel, but their appearance in many 
species has not only been known to but made even a 
factor in their classification by Bornet. It seems inex- 
plicable to us why this distinguished author’s works 
should be so little known to English writers, but so it 
is, and on turning over page 247 to see what would be 
said about the Rivulariacee—the Scytonemaceze—we 
felt disappointed at not finding even a reference to show 
the student how much has been done by Bornet in 
recent years to add to our knowledge of these groups. 
To these remarks we will only add that the large and 
important groups of Palmellaceze are dismissed in a 
paragraph of ten lines. In order that these remarks may 
not be mistaken, we may observe that we did not expect 
to find more than a sketch of the natural: history of the 
forms to be found in these groups lying at the base of 
chlorophyllaceous life, but we did expect that what was 
narrated of these would be exact, and that a reference 
to the latest literature of the subject would be given. It 
would be easy, at least among the Thallophytes, to extend 
these criticisms. Such an excessively interesting algal 
form as Pithophora is nowhere alluded to, though its 
first birth-place seems to have been our Royal Gardens 
at Kew. Wittrock’s paper on this form was fully as 
important as his on Mesocarpez. Norvis the student 
referred under Fucoidee to the splendidly illustrated 
work on the group by Thuret and Bornet ; but criticism is 
not our object, and we gladly pass from the notice of 
Book II. to notice Book III., from which, knowing the 
excellent work done by the Editor in vegetable physiology, 
we expected great things, nor have we been disappointed. 
It seems to us an excellent account of vegetable physio- 
| logy, with all or most of all the modern discoveries 
alluded to, and we know of no compendium on the subject 
at all approaching to it. 
Should in another four years this second English 
edition be sold out, let us hope that Mr. Vines will, like 
its author, cease trying to mend the old garment, but will 
of his own energy and knowledge give us an Introduc- 
tion to the Study of Botany, which we doubt not would 
be worthy of appearing as one of the Clarendon Press 
Series, and which will wipe away the reproach, true to 
this of physiological botany as of the drama, that we are 
forced to fly with all too borrowed plumes. 
E. P. WRIGHT 
RECENT ELECTRICAL PUBLICATIONS 
Electricity. By Robert M. Ferguson, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., 
of the Edinburgh Institute. New Edition, revised and 
extended by James Blyth, M.A., F.R.S E., Professor of 
Math. and Nat. Phil. in Anderson’s College, Glasgow. 
(London and Edinburgh: W. and R. Chambers, 
1882.) 
Electric Illumination. By Conrad Cooke, James Dredge, 
M. F. O’Reilly, S. P. Thompson, and H. Vivarez. 
Edited by James Dredge. Chiefly compiled from 
Engineering. With Abstracts of Specifications, pre- 
pared by W. Lloyd Wise. Vol. I. (London : Office of 
Engineering, 1882.) 
ROFESSOR BLYTH has done good service by the 
judicious additions which have to a great extent 
revivified Dr. Ferguson’s well-known little manual, and 
brought it up to the level of the times. 
The actual progress in electrical science since the 
original book appeared has not been anything extra- 
ordinary, but the amount of it which the public are willing 
to learn has undergone a prodigious increase, and the 
modern text-book is therefore expected to enter into 
details about a number of matters which a few years ago 
would have been scouted as altogether too difficult. It is 
these semi-advanced portions which Prof. Blyth has in- 
corporated with the old stock of the work, the stock re- 
maining about the same. There was very little to which 
one could object in the original ; if it erred, it erred as a 
rule only by omission. In the new edition, however, we 
have information, and though concise it is mostly good 
and reliable information very intelligibly expressed, con- 
cerning Sir Wm. Thomson’s electrometers, mariner’s 
compass, and thermo-electric discoveries, also concerning 
electrostatic and electromagnetic induction, and other 
matters which had been but very lightly glanced at in the 
original edition. It also refers to Mr. Crooke’s experiments, 
Mr. Spottiswoode’s coil, Prof. Tait’s thermo-electric dia- 
gram, and Dr. Kerr’s discoveries. The operation of 
making a text-book may be compared to the operation of 
skimming, and the depth to which this operation may be 
safely carried depends, we suppose, mainly on the taste of 
the public at the time. Prof. Blyth has added to Dr. 
Ferguson’s original skim a slightly deeper and more sub- 
stantial layer ; and fortunately neither of the authors have 
