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December 12, 1901 



Hreckel has, we know, spoken disparagingly enough 

 of rfiere systematism, and compared it to " postagestamp- 

 ology" (the word "philately" had not then been in- 

 vented). Hut we read in the dedication of the "Generelle 

 Jilorphologie " to Gegenbauer how, as a boy of twelve, he 

 had collected a herbarium of local plants with a set of 

 intermediate forms between the " critical species," and 

 already had been led thereby to doubt the orthodox view 

 of the constancy of species ; we know his masterly un- 

 ravelling and grouping of the appalling wealth of forms in 

 the Kadiolaria. De Bary once said to the writer : " With- 

 out a good systematic knowledge to begin with, no botanist 

 can tell where he is, nor what he is dealing with." 

 Charles Darwin began as a collector, and monographed 

 the Cirrhipedia, and Alfred Russel Wallace was a col- 

 lecting naturalist. If we want to place ourselves on a par 

 with Austrian and (German biologists we must reform our 

 teaching of botany on the common-sense lines followed 

 so successfully abroad, and once introduced by Henslow 

 into the primary teaching of his village school in East- 

 Anglia. As a preliminary to the morphology and bio- 

 nomics of our academic programmes, there must be laid 

 a sound foundation in the knowledge of organic external 

 form and variety. And so the scientific training of the 

 individual will be pursued on lines corresponding to the 

 acquirement of scientific knowledge by the race, a course 

 which should, at least in this case, commend itself to all 

 educational reformers. M. H. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. 

 LEpoca delle grandi Scoperte geografiche. Di Carlo 

 Errera. Con 21 carte, &c. Pp. xvi -1- 432 (text, 357). 

 (Milano: Hoepli, 1901.) Price L.6. 50. 



THIS useful, brightly-written and well-illustrated sum- 

 mary of the geographical progress of Christendom, 

 from the beginning ol the Middle .\ges, is divided into 

 twelve parts, of which the first eight deal with the pre- 

 Columbian time and the last four with the great age of 

 discovery, from Columbus to Magellan. .Among the 

 twenty illustrations are four reproductions of early 

 mediaeval maps, from Miller and Beazley, one of Carig- 

 nano's Portolano of 1300, one of Fra Mauro's map of 

 1459, one of a section of Juan de la Cosa's chart of 1500, 

 one of the Strassburg Ptolemy of 15 13, and one of the 

 1529 mappe-monde of Diego Ribero. Most of the latter 

 are reproduced from Ruge's " Geschichte des Zeitalters 

 der Entdeckungen." In its text the present work is also 

 mainly based, for its later chapters, upon the same and 

 other works of Ruge's, as well as upon Kretschmer's 

 " Entdeckung Amerikas," Nordenskjold's "Facsimile 

 Atlas," Harrisse's " Christophe Colomb " and other 

 studies, and Giinther's "Zeitalter der Entdeckungen " ; for 

 its earlier upon Nordenskjold's " Periplus," Hughes' 

 " Storia della Geografia," Heyd's " Commerce du Levant," 

 Uzielli and Amat's " .Studi biografici . . . sulla Storia della 

 Geografia," K. Miller's "Mapp;i?mundi," Heazley's " Dawn 

 of Modern Geography," Avezac's edition of, and intro- 

 duction to, Carpini, Yule's Marco Polo, &c. 



But although essentially a compilation from more ex- 

 tensive and specialised studies on the history of explor- 

 ation. Prof Errera's contribution to the " Collezione Storica 

 Villari " has great merits. It describes with excellent 

 NO. 1676, VOL. 65] 



lucidity, compression, and good sense the chief epochs 

 in the great drama of European awakening to a fuller 

 knowledge of the world. No attempt, indeed, is made 

 to treat (except allusively) of Arab or Chinese explora- 

 tion and geographical study ; and it might be said that 

 a somewhat fuller appreciation of the latter is almost 

 indispensable for a complete understanding of the 

 European advance to which Prof Errera restricts him- 

 self. It might also be objected that a chapter on the 

 exploration of the north (No. vii. " La Conoscenza del 

 Settentrione"), including the description of the Scandin- 

 avian voyages to Iceland, Greenland and Mnland, should 

 precede, and not follow, chapters (iv.-vi.) on the grow- 

 ing knowledge of Asia among Europeans during the 

 thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. 



Once again, more attention might have been given to the 

 career and first voyage (1497) of Giovanni Caboto ; and, 

 to instance a very small point, Konrad Miller's " Eb- 

 storfkarte" is not separate from his " Mapp;fmundi : Die 

 altesten Weltkarten," but heft v. of the same. But little 

 fault, as a whole, can be found with the way in which 

 the author brings out, section by section, his epitome of 

 what he defines, in his preface, as the " progressive ex- 

 tension of the knowledge of the superficies of our planet," 

 down to the era of the first voyage round the world. 



A special word of thanks is due to the excellent critical 

 judgment with which the difficult voyages of the Zeni 

 are handled — a subject hard enough in itself and doubly 

 hard for a fellow-countryman of Xicolo and Antonio 

 Zeno. Italians, perhaps, did more than any other people — 

 more even than Scandinavians and Portuguese — for the 

 advance of European trade and exploration, as well as 

 for the perfecting of geographical science ; from An- 

 toninus of Placentia to Marco Polo and Ludovico Var- 

 thema, from Malocello and the \'ivaldi to Columbus, 

 Verrazano and the Cabots, from Flavio Gioja to Fra 

 Mauro and Toscanelli, Italian travellers, merchants, and 

 men of science bore a foremost share in the work of 

 opening up the world. Among the early Portolani, the 

 first true maps ever set forth, an overwhelming prepon- 

 derance (413 out of 498) are Italian ; and the whole of 

 modern trade, with all the possibilities of civilising pro- 

 gress which it contains, might almost be called a dis- 

 covery of Italian genius. Italian scholars of the present 

 day may, therefore, be said to have a special claim upon 

 the subject here discussed, as the subject has a special 

 claim upon them ; and although this breve storia has 

 not the original value of Marinelli's remarkable study 

 on the geography of the Dark Ages, it deserves a most 

 cordial welcome. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Die Tierwclt der Schvjeiz in ihren Beziehungen sur 



Eiszeit. Von Prof Dr. F. Zschokke. Pp.71. (Basel: 



B. Schwabe, 1901.) Price Mk. 1.20. 

 Hkre in short compass we have set forth the relation of 

 the flora and especially of the fauna of Switzerland to the 

 Glacial period. Geologists have been wont to cite the 

 occurrence of Arctic plants in the .-Mps and the mountains 

 of middle Europe as strongly confirming their belief in 

 the former prevalence of a glacial climate in what are 

 now temperate latitudes. In his present work the 

 author shows that, however cogent that evidence may 

 be, it is in no degree stronger than that derived from a 



