Dec. 16, 1880] 



NA TURE 



His account of the Lichens is not more trustworthy 

 than that which he gives of Volvox. He appears to be 

 halting between two opinions with regard to the burning 

 question of the nature of these organisms, for although 

 he states on p. 69 that the germinating spore gives rise to 

 both gonidia and hypha:, thereby implying that those 

 cells of the thallus which do not contain chlorophyll and 

 those which do have a common origin, yet he admits 

 (p. 74) that the gonidia may escape from the thallus and 

 lead an independent existence, and further (p. 84), that 

 he has observed the formation of a lichen-thallus by the 

 combination of algal and fungal forms which were origin- 

 ally distinct. 



His treatment of the Cormophytes is also disappointing. 

 If the student, anxious to become acquainted with the 

 most recent views as to such important points as the 

 gymnosperms of the Conifers and the morphological 

 significance of the embryo-sac and its contents in Flower- 

 ing Plants, turns to the sections of this book which profess 

 to treat of them, he will find only a few dogmatic state- 

 ments with regard to the former point, and none at all 

 with regard to the latter. Perhaps these points may have 

 been thought too recondite for discussion in a work which 

 professes to be a handbook for learners of the science, but 

 many pages are devoted to the consideration of subjects, 

 such as the more compHcated forms of phyllotaxis, which 

 have principally a mathematical interest. Again, the 

 morphology of the stem, of the leaf, and especially of the 

 root, is dismissed far too summarily. It is to be hoped 

 that these organs, as well as inflorescences, flowers, and 

 fruits, will have justice done to them in the volume on 

 the Classification of Flowering Plants. One further 

 shortcoming must yet be mentioned, namely, the scanti- 

 ness of the account given of the embryology of plants. 

 This is a subject which has been much studied in recent 

 years, and, from the title of this book, it might naturally 

 be expected that it would give a satisfactory account of 

 the results which have been attained. This is, unfor- 

 tunately, by no means the case. Some of the facts are 

 mentioned, it is true, but they are stated too briefly to be 

 very intelligible, and no attempt seems to have been 

 made to connect them together and to explain their 

 significance. 



It must be admitted that the book contains a consider- 

 able amount of information scattered through its pages, 

 but the purely theoretical principles upon which this 

 information has been arranged render it difficult of 

 acquirement, and for this reason, if for no other, the book 

 is not one which can be recommended for the use of 

 students. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



The Gardens of the Sunj or, A Naturalisfs Journal on 

 the Mountains and in the Forests and Swamps of 

 Borneo and the Sulu Archiptlago. By F. W. Burbidge. 

 (London : John Murray, ibSo.) 



This book is the itinerary of a competent and enthusiastic 

 botanist, whose main object was " the collection and 

 introduction of beautiful new plants to the Veitchian 

 collection at Chelsea," in which he so far succeeded as 

 to add about fifty ferns to the list of those already collected 

 in Borneo, about twenty being also new to science, and to 

 introduce alive the giant pitcher-plant of Kina Balu 

 [Nepenthes Rajah, Hook. f.). But these alone by no 



means show the floral riches which have induced the 

 author to use the by no means exaggerated term 

 " Gardens of the .Sun.'' Amongst epiphytal orchids 

 which here growing in mid-air " screened from the sun 

 by a leafy canopy, deluged with rains for half the year or 

 more at least, and fanned by the cool sea-breezes or 

 monsoons," is found the beautiful Phalcenopsis grandi- 

 flora ; nor in the mountain vegetation are like floral 

 riches absent ; at 5000 feet the curious pitcher-plant, 

 Nepenthes Lowi, was found epiphytal on mossy trunks 

 and branches, and higher still a " large-flowered rhodo- 

 dendron, bearing rich orange flowers two inches in 

 diameter, and twenty flowers in a cluster." The forests 

 and gardens of Borneo are equally rich in native and 

 naturalised kinds of edible fruits, the mango, pine-apple, 

 durian, rarabutan, &c., being all alike plentiful and luxu- 

 riant, and, as Mr. Burbidge remarks, in some favoured 

 districts in Malaya the forests almost become orchards on 

 a large scale, so plentifully are they stocked. 



Zoolot^y was naturally less followed than botany, but 

 still a collection of birds was made, notices of which, 

 contributed by Mr. Sharpe to the Zoological Society, are 

 appended to the volume. We however regret to find the 

 word "alligator" still constantly occurring, whilst the 

 word "boa " is equally misleading. Crocodile and python 

 are words which do not seem to find a home in the East, 

 nor moreover in many books of Eastern travel. It is also 

 quite erroneous to say that Borneo " is the only habitat 

 of the wild elephant in the Malay Archipelago"; certainly 

 so, at least, if we are not to exclude Sumatra from that 

 region. 



Many ethnological facts are scattered about the volume ; 

 the account of the Jakuns of Johore is taken and fully 

 acknowledged from Maclay's memoir on the subject in 

 the " Journal of Eastern Asia"; but the author contributes 

 an interesting account of the method pursued by the 

 Kadyans in playing the game of football. No one but 

 the student of games knows how difficult it is to find 

 much or any information on this point in most books of 

 travel. 



Tasnianian Friends and Foes : Feathered, Furred, and 



Finned. By Louisa Anne Meredith, Author of " My 



Home in Tasmania," &c. With Coloured Plates from 



Drawings by the Author, and other Illustrations. 



(London : Marcus Ward and Co., 1880.) 



It will probably be granted that there is developed hn 



most people a fondness for certain of what we are pleased 



to call the lower forms of animals. Such are made pets 



of for various reasons : the sweetness of their song, the 



brightness of their plumage, the splendour of their scales 



— these phenomena act as causes that attract the senses. 



Their sometimes fond and gentle ways make of some, 



prime favourites, while a sense of their usefulness makes 



again of others indispensable companions to man. 



Most of man's dumb companions have been taken from 

 groups of animals with a more or less world-wide distri- 

 bution ; and it will no doubt be new to some of our 

 readers to learn that in Australia — a country where the 

 aborigines, for want of native pets, had to import at some 

 time or another a dog — that there, such forms as brush 

 kangaroos, wombats, bandicoots, and even great forest 

 kangaroos — animals only known in these parts — can also 

 become nice, quite gentle, mannerly things, doing a little 

 damage now and then, it is true, by leaving long dirty 

 tracks to bother the housemaid, like a boy home at 

 Christmas time, or pulling up tulip-bulbs, or, worst of all, 

 getting into the children's beds because they are com- 

 fortable. The beautifully got-up volume whose title heads 

 this notice is written by a well-known and respected lady 

 who has often before written pleasantly about her Tas- 

 nianian home and the bush friends she found or made 

 there. In the present volume she writes an able defence ot 

 some of herdumb "marsupial"acquaintances, showingthat 



