176 



NATURE 



[August 10, 191 i 



["he introduction of keys here and there is also of 



;reat use. The first volume was illustrated by a 



lumber of drawings in the text, all of which, with 



Hion of the last six, were made by Nylander. 



In- new volume has at the end fifty-nine plates which 

 orm a very valuable part of this catalogue. The 

 igures of the lichen habits and the sections of the 

 pothecia are really excellent, but the sections of the 

 hallus are in most cases too diagrammatic to be of 

 ,ny use. In the glossary we miss any reference to 

 he very important and not uncommon soredia. 



The ecological study of the lichens is of the greatest 

 nterest, but until now it has been hampered by the 

 bsence of a complete and modern flora. It is to be 

 toped that botanists will now attempt more 

 horoughly to study the physiology of the distribution 

 f lichens. Everywhere, on trees, on solitary rocks, 

 n the tops of hills and mountains, towards the 

 arctic and Antarctic limits of plant life, the lichens 

 orm practically the only vegetation present. But 

 his vegetation shows, though on a small scale, of 

 ourse, all the gradations, from the small tree-like 

 ^ladonias of the "lichen-forest" to the minute 

 rustaceous lichens which occur on the bare rock 

 aces, there forming very often a typical interrupted 



desert-vegetation." Numerous xerophil and hvgro- 

 hil, and even hydrophil formations, can be distin- 

 ;uished, which are characterised by the regular asso- 

 iation of certain definite species. But all ecological 

 .•ork must be based on an accurate knowledge of the 

 pecies under examination, and we must therefore be 

 ;lad that this lichen flora is now complete. The 

 uthor is to be congratulated on having successfully 

 arried out a very arduous bit of work. 



O. V. D. 



MODERN CUBA, 

 ".uba. By Irene A. Wright. Pp. xiv + 512. (New 

 York : The Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan 

 and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 10s. 6d. net. 

 "T is a somewhat thankless task to write a book 

 - upon an island like Cuba, which, although large 

 nd tropical, is devoid of really grand scenery, and 

 ae original natives of which have vanished without a 

 ace, whilst the colonial population has made no 

 istory in comparison with other Latin-American 

 ountries. The conquests of Mexico and of Peru were 

 ramatic; they and the rest have retained a large 

 ative population full of interesting problems; they 

 11 had their wars of independence; they combined or 

 plit, and kept themselves in evidence by countless 

 svolutions or wars of mutual conquest; and not a 

 sw of fhem have attained an important position 

 mong the nations of the world. Cuba, from the 

 me of its discovery until a few years ago, was a 

 panish colony, the usual unhappy condition of which 

 ancerned none but the mothcr-countrv. It is the 

 Pearl of the Antilles " simply because it is so large 

 nd marvellously fertile. Its history means recent 

 olitics, and such are difficult to write upon. 

 Tlv author has resided for ten years in Cuba as a 

 mrnalist, either on the staff of some local news- 

 KO. 2l8o, VOL. 87] 



paper, or as agent of the Cuban Department of Agri- 

 culture, or lastly as editor of a magazine devoted 

 to the commercial industries of the island, in which 

 capacities she travelled largely through its provinces 

 to write up, or down, as the case may be, some mine, 

 plantation, or other concern. 



After the overthrow of the Spanish regime in 1898 

 followed the four years' military administration by the 

 U.S.A. Thanks to the vigorous cleaning-up of the 

 devastated country and enforced quietude, everything 

 assumed a brighter outlook until the American 

 Government withdrew, leaving Palma as the first 

 president of the new republic. Then followed the 

 inevitable internal strife, those who were out wanting 

 the jobs enjoyed by those who were in. It was no 

 longer Cubans against Spain, but Cubans against 

 each other. The prevailing condition is perplexing. 

 Of the two million inhabitants, more than 11 percent, 

 are foreigners. This foreign-born element consists 

 mainly of Spaniards (80 per cent.), the rest of 

 Chinese, former African slaves, Americans, and various 

 other nations in much diminished proportion. The 

 Cubans themselves are for the most part the island- 

 born descendants of white stock, but inextricably mixed 

 with black and brown. 



The foreigners hold at least three-fourths of all the 

 valuable lands, and the commerce also is in their 

 hands, but as uitlanders they have no voice in the 

 government, although they pay most of the property 

 taxes and, at least directly, the Customs duties, whilst 

 the Cubans represent the governing class, or rather 

 they fill the Government offices. As usual in these 

 Latin republics, the numbers of the politically active 

 natives are small, the overwhelming mass being petty 

 traders and labourers, who take no interest in a strife 

 which they do not understand. They prefer being left 

 in peace, but they take up arms and become patriots 

 merely because as men in arms they may forage. 



The staple industries are sugar and tobacco, and 

 as these pay best other agricultural pursuits are 

 rather neglected, so that in parts this fertile island can 

 scarcely feed itself. There is a chapter on tobacco, 

 interesting for its history, but this is culled from some 

 other work; and the reader will learn nothing about 

 the working of such a plantation, or, let us say, the 

 life-history of a Havana cigar, from seed to finish, 

 a story which would be more attractive, even to non- 

 smokers, than the information that "modern imple- 

 ments, intelligent and scientific irrigation are bound 

 to increase quantity, without impairing quality in the 

 least." 



The bulk of the book, illustrated with some seventy 

 well-executed photographs of scenery, building, town 

 and country life, is devoted to the description of 

 several journeys, interspersed with remarks upon com- 

 merce, industries, and local history. A long residence 

 in the island, and the active interest taken in its 

 politics during stirring times, entitle the writer to 

 take sides in her expressed opinions. The chapters 

 on home life, days in Ilabana, rice with beanv, 

 foreigners in Cuba are vividly true of Hispano- 

 American life, and sketched by one who has not merely 

 fw 1 ped but lived behind the curtain. 



