NA TURE 



[Feb. 25, 1886 



enough when they chose. In one of the volumes of that 

 interminable romance, the " Satomi Hakkenden" — there 

 are more than fifty vohimes— there is a splendid sketch 

 of a bull, the wild boar is not seldom vigorously delineated, 

 and Mr. Anderson gives a spirited and fairly correct 

 drawing of a deer (PL 31). The explanation probably is 

 that quadrupeds did not interest the Eastern artist, the 

 chase, save of the wild boar, was little in vogue, and 

 rather discouraged by Buddhism. The human face was 

 regarded generally as a mere accessory, and convention- 

 ally rendered. There were exceptions : Kikuchi Yosai 

 drew faces vigorously, though even he seemed to limn a 

 profile with difficulty, and the portrait-sculptors of the 

 seventeenth century displayed considerable power. No 

 attempt whatever seems to have been made to portray 

 human beauty of face or form, and the renderings of 

 female beauty are insipid in the extreme, as well seen in the 

 sketch of an ancient hetaira, somewhat truculently called 

 " Hell " Reigan (PI. 41). The stronger emotions, however, 

 are delineated with a power that would have delighted Dar- 

 win, exemplifying admirably his descriptions of the modes 

 of facial expression of the passions of anger, fear, despair, 

 and horror. In some of the novel-illustrations I have 

 seen disdain, reflection, and slyness admirably portrayed. 

 But the softer sentiments are either not depicted at all, 

 or depicted after a purely conventional fashion. The 

 Turanian countenance is not expressive, save of the 

 stronger emotions. A curious mode of portraying anger 

 is to paint streaks of red round the eyes and along the 

 principal lines of expression, nor is the device altogether 

 ineffectual. The Japanese flush with anger, but not with 

 shame ; indeed, the feeling of shame they seem to 

 possess but in a minor degree. In some other particulars 

 their modes of expression are peculiar. They nod assent 

 iunadzuki), but do not shake their head in dissent. They 

 talk without gestures and with little emphasis of accent, 

 but with curious changes of note and intonation. They 

 never kiss ; mothers even do not kiss their children, and 

 they have singularly few terms of endearment. By way 

 of compensation they have few terms of abuse, and no 

 oaths. Their individuality is small, reflected in the 

 curious impersonality of their language (see some excel- 

 lent remarks on this characteristic by Mr. Aston, Tr. R. 

 As. Soc, vol. xii.) ; every Japanese is through life a member 

 of a family, or, if a head of a family, a member of some 

 guild or fraternity ; he never " paddles his own canoe." 

 Thus may be explained, in great measure, their neglect 

 of humanity in art. 



On a future occasion I trust to be allowed to offer a 

 few more remarks on some points in connection with the 

 art of Japan that seem to me interesting in relation to it 

 as a phase in human history. Meanwhile I must not 

 omit a recognition, not the less hearty because necessarily 

 brief, of the value of Mr. Anderson's labours, the extent 

 of which my own studies enable ine to appreciate. This 

 is not the place to enlarge upon the artistic merits of his 

 work ; they have been, or will be, sufficiently appreciated 

 elsewhere. But the stores of folklore he has gathered 

 together form a contribution to our scientific knowledge 

 of man of extreme importance, and his account of the 

 development of Japanese art is as interesting as it is 

 instructive. The present instalment is admirably got up, 

 and the illustrations, particularly the chromolithographs 



by Greve of Berlin, are of unsurpassed excellence. Alto- 

 gether the work promises to be of equal interest and 

 value to the student of man and society, to the lover of 

 art, and to the collector of Oriental curiosities. 



F. V. DICKINS 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE PHANEROGAMS 



VEvoluiion des Phanerogames. Par MM. Saporta et 

 Marion. Second Notice. (Paris : Alcan, Boulevard St. 

 Germain, 18S5.) 



IN our previous notice (vol. xxxii. p. 289) of this important 

 work we traced the evolution of gymnosperms down 

 to a certain point. Prof. Williamson soon afterwards com- 

 municated the chief point of difference between his views 

 and those of our authors, in a very interesting letter 

 (Nature, vol. xxxii. p. 364). We were not able at the 

 time to follow the subject farther, and this was of less 

 consequence, as the points at issue, though extremely 

 important in themselves, are not claimed to be in the 

 direct line of evolution of the existing phanerogams. The 

 palaeozoic heterosporous cryptogams, with exogenous 

 stems, are chiefly interesting, from the evolutionary 

 standpoint, for the light they throw on what must pro- 

 bably have been the structure of the common ancestors, 

 from which they, as well as the gymnosperms, were 

 derived. A resume of what is known regarding the 

 ancestry of the Eocene ConiferJE will shortly be published 

 by the Palaeontographical Society, the compilation of 

 much of which has been directly assisted by Prof. 

 Williamson himself, and has also been revised in part by 

 Mr. Carruthers. As it is not claimed by Saporta and 

 Marion in any way that angiosperms have been evolution- 

 ised from gymnosperms, even through the Gnetacea;, it is 

 unnecessary to pursue that branch of the subject farther 

 now. The interest of the work centres, in fact, in the 

 attempt to trace the ancestry of the monocotyledons and 

 dicotyledons, groups which to ordinary observers seem to 

 appear with startling abruptness in the geological record. 

 The differentiation of angiosperms, no less than gymno- 

 sperms, originally took place, it would appear, in pre- 

 Carboniferous times, the ancestral forms common to both 

 being heterosporous cryptogams, destitute of exogenous 

 wood. The fundamental difi"erence at starting seems to 

 be that, in the gymnosperms, one of the macrospores 

 contained in the ovule immediately absorbs all the rest, 

 enabling their evolution to proceed with rapidity ; while 

 in the angiosperms there is a period of struggle among 

 the macrospores before one finally obtains the advantage 

 and obliterates its fellows. Want of space renders it 

 impossible to give any account of the steps by which 

 the authors have traced out this process. The common 

 source, at a remote period, of the monocotyledons and 

 the dicotyledons, is assumed from the fact that the early 

 stages of the development of the embryo, in some of the 

 former, approach nearer to dicotyledons than to plants of 

 their own class. Moreover, the essential organs, the 

 carpels, stamens, petals, and the fruits, are sufficiently 

 analogous to indicate a common origin. The problem 

 attempted is to reconstruct the " pro-angiospermic " 

 stage whence these two opposite lines have issued. The 

 fully-developed leaves of monocotyledon? and dicotyledons 

 embrace many varieties, from the most simple to others 



