362 



NA TURE 



[January 27, 19 10 



leges, reading circles at home, and farmers' institutes. 

 Full details of the working of these schemes are given. 



Legislature relating to agriculture is then dealt with, 

 and the somewhat varying laws of the different States 

 are summarised. Lastly, we have a number of bio- 

 graphies of persons who were prominent in developing 

 "agriculture and wholesome country living, and in 

 starting new movements of national consequence." 



The volume can be cordially recommended to all who 

 are interested in the remarkable progress of agriculture 

 in the United States. The story is wonderfully in- 

 teresting, even when told in the rather disjointed 

 manner that is a necessary consequence of a number 

 of authors and an encyclopaedia. Problems are aris- 

 ing in parts of the British Empire not unlike those 

 that have arisen in the United States. The methods 

 by which they were dealt with there, which are 

 so well set out in the present volume, cannot fail to 

 afford valuable and suggestive material to agricultural 

 workers and administrators elsewhere. 



E. J. Russell. 



SIR JOSEPH B.IXKS. 

 Sir Joscpli Btiuhs, the "Father of Australia." By 

 J. H. Maiden. Pp. xxiv+244. (Sydney : William 

 Applegate (iuUick; London: Kcgan Paul and 

 Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price 6x. not. 



IN an old gazetteer we read that Botany Bay was 

 discovered in 1770 by Captain Cook, who so named 

 It from the great quantity of herbs which he found 

 •on its shores. This statement is true, of course, as 

 -to the main fact, but it is otherwise inaccurate and 

 incomplete, for no doubt the name was suggested by 

 "Sir Joseph Banks's report on the vegetation of the 

 •country around their first landing-place in .Australia 

 and the very rich botanical collections obtained. After 

 •circumnavigating New Zealand the question arose 

 whether the Endeavour should sail in search of the 

 supposed southern continent or make for the coast 

 of New Holland, and the latter course was deter- 

 mined upon because the condition of the ship was not 

 ■considered equal to encounter the stormy southern 

 seas. The expedition arrived in the bay on April 28 

 and left on May 6, and an entry in Banks's journal, 

 •dated May 3, runs as follows : 



" Our collection of plants was now grown so im- 

 mensely large that it was necessary that some extra- 

 ordinary care should be taken of them lest they should 

 spoil in tlie books." 



This note referred to the collections previously 

 imade in New Zealand, as well as the Australian 

 iplants, of which, by the way, only a small proportion 

 "were herbs. 



In commemoration of this notable and important 

 -event an obelisk was erected in 1870, the centenary 

 of the landing of Cook and Banks, but it has long 

 been felt in Sydney that Banks's services in the ex- 

 ploration and colonisation of Australia have not been 

 adequately recognised. As Mr. Maiden states in the 

 book before us : — " His journal of the voyage was 

 made over to Hawkesworth, who so arranged the 

 narrative that Banks did not receive due credit." The 

 recent publication of Banks's journal, edited by the 

 NO. 2100, \'()L. S2I 



venerable Sir Joseph Hooker, has brought to light tlic 

 prominent part Banks took in the expedition, and the 

 publication now of a portion of his correspondence 

 shows that he was; more or less actively engaged during 

 the remaining fifty years of his life in promoting the 

 interests of the young colony and the exploration of 

 the surrounding country. A committee has been con- 

 stituted in Sydney to collect a fund for the purpose 

 of providing a memorial to Banks. Mr. Maiden has 

 joined the movement, and the book he now offers the 

 public has been compiled with the double object of 

 disseminating information concerning "Australia's 

 greatest early friend " and of procuring a handsome 

 contribution to the memorial fund. It has been printed 

 at the expense of the State of New South ^^'alcs, and 

 the whole of the proceeds of the sale will be devoted 

 to the object in question. 



That a botanist should have undertaken this task 

 is appropriate, and a botanist living on the spot where 

 Australia's colonisation began, because Banks himself, 

 though a man of universal sympathies, was essentially 

 a botanist and horticulturist. Mr. Maiden has not 

 written a biography of Banks, though he chronicles 

 the leading events of his whole career. Following 

 this he has strung together a chronological narrative 

 of events connected with the early history of Aus- 

 tralia, in which many important personages figure 

 besides Banks. The whole is a highly interesting 

 record of facts, gleaned from a variety of sources and 

 selected for the purpose of establishing, or rather 

 vindicating, Banks's claim to the gratitude of both 

 the old and the new countries for the leading part 

 he took in what has proved a most momentous move- 

 ment in the population of the Antipodes. The book 

 is fully and suitably illustrated, including portraits, 

 early views, and reproductions of Cook's charts of 

 Botanv Bay and the entrance to the Endeavour River, 

 on which the modern Cooktown is situated. It is a 

 book, too, that everybody interested in Australia 

 should read, and thereby derive much pleasure, and 

 directly or indirectly assist the author in his patriotic 

 effort. Short extracts from two of Banks's charac- 

 teristic letters, dated 1797 and 1799, and addressed to 

 Governor Hunter, may close this notice : — 



"The climate and soil are in my opinion superior 

 to most which have yet been settled by Europeans. 

 ... I see the future prospect of empire and dominion 

 which now cannot be disappointed. Who knows but 

 England may revive in New South \\'ales when it has 

 sunk in Europe? Your colony is already a most valu- 

 able appendage to Great Britain, and I flatter myself 

 we shall before it is long see her Ministers made 

 sensible of its real value." W. B. Hemsley. 



rHE ESSENTIALS OF THE COMPARATIVE 

 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



Verglcichciidc .4na/omje der Wirbeliiere. By Dr. 

 Robert Wiedersheim. Siebente Auflage. Pp. xx-F 

 9^,6; 476 text-figures, and one lithographic plate. 

 (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1909.) Price 21 marks. 



THE seventh edition of this well-known text-book 

 is much more than a mere reprint of the 1906 

 edition, the work in its present form having experi- 

 enced b 'Ih a thorough revision and a considerable 



