; 7 2 



NA TURE 



[September 16, 1922 



gives a clue to their access to the parts of England 

 where the three-field system is best shown. That they 

 did not at once dominate the west is clear from archaeo- 

 logical evidence, especially from the finding of rapier- 

 like dirks in place of leaf-shaped swords in the south 

 and south-west. In Wales and other hill-lands the 

 moorland-village seems to have survived, and, when 

 valley clearing spread there, family groups in single 

 households moved downhill and built the Tyddyn 

 near shelves of cultivation on the hill - sides. Mr. 

 Peake thinks the Romans met the valley-village- 

 community in Gaul and Alemannia and probably- 

 interfered with it as little as possible, so that according 

 to him. the continuity from earlier times would be 

 much greater than Seebohm thought. This is a view 

 which obviously needs further examination on the 

 basis of study of geographical distributions and we 

 specially need maps of the distribution of open-field 

 villages in France. Mr. Peake's view is, at any rate, 

 far more helpful than the one which would ascribe 

 the three-field system to the Saxon invaders of Britain, 

 for these last came from a region where the one-field 

 scheme was characteristic and they had little connexion 

 with the Alemannic areas of distribution of the three- 

 field system. 



Having outlined this interesting opinion Mr. Peake 

 follows, on fairly orthodox lines, the open-field valley- 

 village down to its decay. He accepts the general 

 view that diminution of fertility of the land was a 

 factor of -this decay, though that is now disputed and 

 it is thought that the properly-organised folding of 

 stock pastured on uncultivated lands would bring in 

 enough manure. That this organisation was adequately 

 maintained everywhere in view of competing claims 

 for the manure between lord and tenant is, however, 

 very doubtful, so the view in this book is probably 

 not very far from correct. 



Mr. Peake's years of public work in rural England 

 give a special interest to his concluding chapter, which 

 asks, what of the future ? He sees that the old village 

 is dead or dying from loss of internal cohesion and 

 that there is too much tendency towards occupational 

 as against neighbourly cohesion. He also fears the 

 further urbanising of the people if the Garden City 

 idea, which he admits to be the best urbanism, spreads. 

 He thinks the Saxon village may have had less than 

 100 people, the mediaeval village perhaps nearly 200. 

 the modern survival about 200, more or less. As 

 civilisation developed in classical lands villages fused, 

 and there is, according to Mr. Peake, much need of 

 larger units, especially for shopping and amenity 

 purposes. The village has been losing its people, 

 especially the best, at an alarming rate, but the tide 

 of numbers turned a little after 1900 in several districts, 

 NO. 2759, VOL. I io] 



thanks probably to the motor car and cycle. To redeem 

 village life from dulness Mr. Peake thinks a population 

 of about 1000 would be desirable, and that in such 

 a unit most standard occupations could be represented, 

 an important factor of contentment now commerce 

 has enlarged our needs. He pleads for farm buildings 

 around the outskirts of the village so that the labourer 

 may be near his beasts, and for small holdings in the outer 

 ring of the village. A village of 1000 can have a doctor, 

 a lawyer, a bank, a bootmaker, a builder, a carpenter, 

 a reasonable school, a public hall, and a few shops 

 of some value. Such villages would encourage retired 

 people, maiden ladies without specialised occupation, 

 and so on to settle in them, and might well lead to a 

 redevelopment of handicraft at all events in leisure 

 time. 



The detailed suggestions may raise dispute, but 

 what is of value here, besides the long and intimate 

 working-experience of rural life which the author 

 possesses, is the fact that the present unfortunate 

 tendency towards separatist specialism is avoided. 

 It is seen that small holdings per se are not em nigh, 

 and that the settling of wage-rates or drafting of 

 housing schemes is only a partial help. It is Mr. 

 Peake's desire to start from life, and from the provision 

 of opportunities of healthy exercise of varied faculties, 

 that marks out his book as worthy of careful and 

 earnest consideration. H. J. F. 



Climbing Palms and the Sago Palms. 



Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. Vol. 12. 

 Part 2 : Asiatic Palms — Lepiodocaryem. Part 3 : 

 The Species of the Genera : Ceratolobus, Calospatha, 

 Plcctoconiia, Plectocomiopsis , Myrialepis, Zalacca, 

 Pigafetta, Korthalsia, Melroxylon, Eugeissona. By 

 Dr. Odoardo Beccari. Text, pp. vi + 231+6 plates. 

 Plates, T20, size 21 in. x 14 in. (Calcutta : Bengal 

 Secretariat Book Depot, 1918-1921.) Rupees 40; 3/. 



IT is a matter of great regret that the late Prof. 

 Beccari did not live to see the publication of the 

 final part of his fine memoir on the Asiatic Lepido- 

 caryese, which he had very fittingly dedicated to the 

 memory of the late Sir George King, the founder of the 

 Annals of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. 



It was characteristic of Sir George that he selected 

 the proper people to 'prepare the valuable memoirs 

 that have preceded the one under review, though his 

 own contributions are among the most noteworthy of 

 the series. This present part constitutes the third of 

 Prof. Beccari's memoirs on the Lepidocaryeoe, vol. xi. 

 having been devoted to the important genus Calamus, 

 and Mil. xii.. part i, to the genus Dsemonorops. Like 



