Al'gust 4, 1910] 



NATURE 



147 



pollen grains of a flower are male sperm cells ; while 

 the somewhat astounding information (p. 132) that 

 the leaves of Victoria Rcgia may be bo feet across is, 

 of course, a mere slip, and not a traveller's tale. There 

 are a number of beautiful photographs (chiefly of 

 plants of economic importance), some of which, how- 

 ever, seem to have little reference to the matters dis- 

 cus'sed in the text. Similarly, "The First Land 

 Plants," which is the title of chapter iii., scarcely 

 describes its contents, which deal chiefly with soil and 

 the nitrate supply of the vegetable world. One of 

 the photographs is here reproduced. 



(2) As other volumes of "The Book of Nature 

 Studv " have been reviewed in Nature, it is 

 unnecessary to indicate the general scope of 

 this work. The first contribution to this 

 volume is one by Miss C. L. Laurie, which 

 {considerinfj that it contains a chapter on 

 aquatic vetjetation, and another on that of 

 meadows and pastures) bears the somewhat 

 curious treneral title of " Xerophytic Vegeta- 

 tion." This part of the work contains a 

 good deal of interesting information, and 

 some useful sug^-estions for practical work ; 

 but, on the whole, it is rather disappointing. 

 In many places there is a lack of clearness, 

 both of expression and arrangement. On 

 p. 15, for instance, it is stated that the 



■ amount of salt in the sea aster varies from 

 4^-49 per cent. It is only incidentally men- 

 tioned in a later paragraph that this refers 

 to ash anah*sis, and not to the fresh or dry 

 weight of tiie plant. The editor might well 

 have exercised a stricter supervision over 

 these chapters. 



But the remainder of the volume is on a 

 higher level. Chapters v.-xii. are devoted 

 to "The School Garden," the author beinp 

 Mr. J. E. Hennesey. The subject is treated 

 almost entirelv from a practical point of 

 view, gardening operations of various kinds 

 ■ — tillage, manuring, the propagation and 

 treatment of plants, &c. — beina: clearly de- 

 scribed. These chapters should prove in- 

 valuable to amateur gardeners, and perhaps 

 more particularly to teachers who have the 

 oversight of a school garden. Mr. Hen- 

 nesey rightly emphasises the importance of 

 a garden being attached to at least every I 

 rural school. It is interesting to note that 

 such gardens are increasing in number in 

 England, thousjh we are still far behindi 

 Austria-Hungary, in which more than 18,000 

 school gardens have been established since 

 1870. 



Distinctly the best part of the present 

 volume has been reserved to the last chapter, 

 which contains a reallv excellent account of 

 "The Work of the Soil," by Mr. A. D. 

 Hall. The author first deals with the orisjin 

 of soils, and then with their properties. 

 Under the latter heading clear directions are 

 given for conducting simple soil analysis, also for 

 experiments to show the behaviour of different soils 

 towards water, the work performed by soil 

 organisms, &c. Pp. 209-11 contain a graphic 

 and convincing description of the competition of plants 

 in nature. 



Both "The Book of Nature Study" and Mr. Scott 

 Elliot's " Botany of To-day " are worthy of a place 

 on the bookshelves of every school library. 



(3) Miss Johnson has' produced a carefully and, on 

 the whole, a clearly written te.xt-book, but, lik; manv 



NO. 2127, VOL. 84] 



j other books of the kind, it is somewhat deficient in 

 brightness and suggestiveness. In the opinion of the 



' present writer, it is a mistake to adopt the water-tight 

 compartment system in the teaching of elementary 

 students. The author, however, adheres to the time- 

 worn method of devoting entirely separate sections of 

 her book to morphology, histology, and physiology. 



i Thus the external characters, the structure, and the 

 functions of a root are treated in quite different parts 

 of the book. Further, bearing- in mind the students 

 for whom the work is intended (vide preface), it is 

 somewhat overcrowded with unnecessary detail. The 

 book is fairly free from serious errors, but perhaps it 



l'hoto.\ 



may be worth while to direct attention to the fact 

 that the intercellular passages so frequent in the 

 vascular bundles of monocotyledons are not air cavities. 

 .'\gain, the chiej function of the air spaces in the stems 

 of water plants is scarcely to "give lightness to the 

 plant" (p. 219), though, curiously enough, this state- 

 ment is also made by Miss Laurie in "The Book of 

 Nature Studv " (p, 23), reviewed above. The excel- 

 lent illustrations, which are nearly all new, form the 

 best feature of the book. Tliese are chiefly by Miss 

 Boys-Smith and Miss Berridge. 



