NATURE 
[May 13, 1915 

“to explain and set forth the principles by which 
the ecologist should be guided, and the apparatus 
and plan to be adopted to enable him or her 
to work upon sound and approved lines.” But 
the directions or suggestions will often lead to 
bewilderment; for instance, the section on pp. 
4-6, entitled “ What to Study,” contains a curious 
medley of suggestions from the study of the form 
and of pollen-grains to the procuring of 
“fruits and berries of foliage” (sic) for decoration 
at Christmas. On the other hand, the same 
chapter contains a useful section on flower-photo- 
graphy. Chapter ii., on methods of collecting, 
preserving, mounting, and storing plants for 
herbaria, contains much that is helpful, though the 
student will find puzzling matter in the section 
on “the arrangement to be adopted in the herb- 
arium”’; among other things the author suggests 
the preparation of “a printed list of all the species 
published since the year 1895 when the ‘ Index 
Kewensis’ and Durand’s ‘ Appendix ’ brought 
things up to date,” thus ignoring the three supple- 
ments of the “Index Kewensis” which carry us 
on to the end of roro. 
A great part of chapter iii., which has the 
tremendous title, ““The necessity for encouraging 
the study of botany on ecological lines, by the 
popularisation of pure life-histories of plants, 
through nature study, museums, scientific socie- 
ties, and other associations, and in the univer- 
sity,” might well have been omitted; much of it 
consists of extracts from the addresses or writings 
of well-known botanists. The next chapter, on 
the study of the life-history of a plant, would 
have been more helpful if in the brief paragraphs 
on the various divisions, such, for instance, those 
on “plants and fungi and insect-pests” or 
“names of wild plants” reference had been given 
to a good standard work on the subject. The 
last chapter (v.), ‘An outline of plant forma- 
tions,” is the best; it includes a brief description 
of various plant-formations and lists of the species 
which occur in them. 
(3) The little book on “leaves” contains eighty 
photographs, mostly of British wild plants, which 
on the whole are good. They were specially pre- 
pared for the work, but were not seen by the 
author owing to his death in 1913.- The text is 
in the style with which readers of the late Francis 
George Heath’s botanical works are familiar. 
One example must suffice. Of the seed we read, 
“A created organism of wonderful and infinite 
skill confronts our marvelling sense in the re- 
motest confines of the great vegetable world— 
so that we cannot begin at the beginning because 
we cannot comprehend the beginning! Power— 
unquestionable—hovers, so to speak, undiscern- 
ible in the tiny seed.” 
NO. 2376, VOL. 95] 
size 

OUR BOOKSHELF. 
The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and 
Religion... By Sir J. G. Frazer. Vol. xii. 
Bibliography and General Index. Pp. Vil + 536. 
(London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1915S.) 
Price 20s. net. 
No book has ever been written which contains so 
large a mass of facts as ‘The Golden Bough.” 
Nor has any book had its data more thoroughly 
documented. The bibliography and index, form- 
ing the twelfth and final volume of the work, fill 
536 octavo pages. The index, 392 pages, is fuller 
than the indices to the separate volumes. Every 
author knows the labour of cross-references; a 
simple instance here is “propitiation of vermin by 
farmers,” involving three entries. There are cases 
of overdoing, a good fault in an index, e.g. “Nat, 
spirit, in Burma, ii. 46,” “Nat superstition in 
Burma, ix. go n!.” “Nats, spirits in Burma, iii. 
GQokpixss 75 sq)..5 Pree aee of, ix. 96.” Here a 
distinction is actually drawn between a singular 
and a plural. Technical generic terms in foreign 
languages are, like botanical and zoological terms, 
etc., printed in italics. But why ‘Oschophoria,” 
yet “Aiora,” both Greek feasts; and “ Farwar- 
dajan,” yet “Sada,” both Persian feasts; also 
“Ogboni” and “Belli-Paaro,” African secret 
' societies, yet ‘“‘Ndembo” and “Hametzes,” also 
secret societies? But these are minor inconsist- 
encies in a monumental index. 
The bibliography comprises probably _ six 
thousand books, including serial publications and 
dictionaries. The curious may find instructive 
items, e.g. Maeletius (Maletius, Meletius, Mene- 
cius, Ian Malecki), who, by the way, wrote on the 
religion of the Borussians (the present-day Prus- 
sians). Many periodicals, e.g. L’Année Socio- 
logique and L’Anthropologie, have not their year 
of institution, nor, what is far more important, 
their place of publication attached. How are 
“readers who desire to have further information,” 
to find “Fasciculi Malagenses, Anthropology,” 
or “Dinkard, a Pahlavi work ” ? 
The distribution of anthropological research 
among the civilised nations may be well estimated 
from this bibliography. England, America, and 
Holland are prominent; Germany has done much, 
so has France. The native authorities on un- 
civilised peoples are an interesting addition. 
A. E. Craw ey. 
The Plateau Peoples of South America. By A. A. 
Adams. Pp. 134. (London: G. Routledge and 
Sons, Ltd., 1915.) Price 3s. 6d. net. 
Tue people discussed in this monograph are those 
inhabiting the South American plateau within the 
boundaries of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. Bolivia, 
however, seems to be more closely associated 
with the past history of the plateau than either 
of the other republics. Its government is largely 
drawn from the plateau population, and its general 
culture is more clearly influenced by the plateau 
than that of Peru, which looks to Europe for light 
and guidance. The writer finds in this upland 
| race a condition of progressive degeneration. The 
people who occupied the country in what may be 


