178 



NATURE 



[Dec. 



1880 



somewhat pretentious work brought out by an English 

 publisher, we feel bound to state that it is full of grave 

 defects. This is due probably to the incompetence of 

 the editor, or the total absence of any such necessary 

 functionary ; for the original was written in Italian, and 

 we cannot believe that the author himself corrected or 

 supervised the proofs. In the first place a considerable 

 number of the illustrations seem to be thrown in at ran- 

 dom, and are not referred to at all in the text. Such are 

 the portraits at pp. 59, 140, and 151 in vol. i. Ornaments 

 and implements from the Fly River are figured in the 

 first instead of in the second volume. A cut of thirty- 

 four separate articles (at vol. i. p. 416), though all num- 

 :bered, has no reference to the numbers; while at vol. ii. 

 p. 136, four elaborate spears or ornamental staves are 



25 sT' "■'"'' 'sa^o SI 



i and We.ipons. From the Fly River (upper set) and Hull Sjund (1( 



descri ed as " Baratus,'' which are said in the text to be 

 " pieces of armour for war," and to be "worked in very 

 hard stone " ! 



The misprints and misspellings are excessively nume- 

 rous. At p. 4 we read of " temples excavated in the 

 deserted roads " in Java. At p. 49 the traveller goes to 

 the " source of the river " instead of to its mouth ; and at 

 p. 222 we have " stone nails " instead, probably, of stone 

 clubs. The names of places and of plants and animals 

 are rarely spelt correctly, and are often spelt differently 

 in adjacent pages. The Italian mode of spelling scientitic 

 names has not been altered, and they are often almost 

 unintelligible to an English reader, as Olotiifia iot Holo- 

 thtiria, Stafiliniis for SiaphyUnus, and Cicas for Cycas. 

 Orankaya (a village chief) is sometimes spelt Orankay 



and sometimes Oranhay. Waigiou is spelt Waigen, and 

 immediately afterwards Waigeu. Battanta is spelt Bat- 

 tauta, and Daudai is spelt Uandai. At the end of the 

 book four vocabularies of nati-'e languages are given, but 

 as if to make these of as little use as possible, they con- 

 sist of four different sets of words, all difterently arranged, 

 and none in alphabetical order ; so that any comparison 

 with each other or with vocabularies given elsewhere is 

 practically impossible without the preliminary labour of 

 rearranging them. Add to this that there is no index to 

 the book and that the only map given is a poor and im- 

 perfect one, and it will, be seen that the merits of Signor 

 p'Albertis' work have not been enhanced by the manner 

 in which it is presented to the reader. 



The illustrations on the whole are good, the coloured 

 plate of birds of paradise being excellent. 

 But far too many skulls are figured, since 

 these are of no possible interest to the 

 general reader, while, as we have no 

 guarantee for their accuracy, or that they 

 are all figured on exactly the same scale, 

 they will have little value for the man of 

 science. 



From the notices scattered through 

 these volumes Signor D'Albertis appears 

 to have made very large collections in 

 natural history, especially of birds, rep- 

 tiles, and insects. It is to be hoped that 

 complete series of these have been kept 

 together, and that, in conjunction with 

 those collected by Dr. Beccari, they will 

 be made the subject of some important 

 works. The birds are being carefully 

 elaborated by Prof. Salvadori ; but the 

 reptiles and the insects would probably 

 throw even more light on the zoological 

 relations and past history of this won- 

 derful island. 



Alfred R. Wallace 



PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS 

 r-^ ■ 'T^HE two papers^ which we notice to- 



^ -'■ gether under the above heading, 



t'lDugh relating to different questions in 

 !'ic physiology of plants, have neverthe- 

 less something in common. Both of them 

 '' *"■ bear on the relationship between the 

 external and internal conditions of life, 

 between e.xternal forces, such as light and 

 gravitation, and the constitution of the 

 organism on which these forces act. And 

 both tend to show the importance of 

 recognising in plants those specific forms 

 of sensitiveness which may be said to 

 determine the results which will follow 

 external changes. 



I. The behaviour of leaves in rela- 

 tion to light may be illustrated by the 

 cotyledons of a seedling radish ; if it is 

 illuminated from above, the cotyledons are extended hori- 

 zontally, and are thus at right angles to the direction of 

 incident light. If the seedling is then placed at a win- 

 dow, so that it is lighted obliquely from above, and if the 

 stem (hypocotyl) is prevented from bending, the cotyle- 

 dons will accommodate themselves to the changed con- 

 ditions by movements in a vertical plane. The cotyledon 

 which points towards the light will sink, while the other 

 will rise, and thus both will become once more at right 

 angles to the incident light. 



Two theories have been proposed to account for this 



* I . * ' The Power possessed by Le.lves of placing themselves at right angles 

 t-i the direction cf Incident Light." IL '*The Theory of the Growth of 

 Cuttings, illustrated by Observations en the Bramble, Rulnis /ritiicosus.'* 

 Read by Francis D.arwin before the Liimean Society, December i6, i8So. 



