Notes and Comments, 243 
THE ANIMAL WORLD. 
Messrs, Williams and Norgate are publishing a wonderful 
series of new books, in the ‘Home University Library of 
Modern Knowledge’ series. They have 256 pages each, with 
illustrations. That with the above-mentioned title is by Prof. 
F.W. Gamble, F.R.S., to whose excellent work we have pre- 
viously had the pleasure of referring. After an Introduction by 
Sir Oliver Lodge, the book contains chapters on the structure 
and classification of animals, their movements, distribution, 
food, methods of breathing, colours, senses, associations, life 
history, heredity and variations, etc. 
EVOLUTION OF PLANTS. 
In the same series Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., deals with the 
evolution of the various forms of plants, in a series of eight 
entertaining chapters. Here again the basis of the theme is 
the Darwinian theory, and the ‘fossil record ;’ then in turn the 
flowering plants, seed plants, ferns, club-mosses, horse-tails, 
and sphenophylls are dealt with, the volume closing with a 
useful glossary and bibliography. There are several illustra- 
tions, though we are not quite sure whether Benmnettitites mary- 
Jandicus (fig. 8) will not be mistaken for a map of part of the 
moon’s surface ! 
EVOLUTION. 
Still in the same series we have a charming summary of 
this great subject, by Prof. Patrick Geddes and Prof. J. Arthur 
Thomson ; the former being responsible for the botanical, and 
the latter for the zoological. Here the evidences brought 
forward by the explorer, paleontologist, anatomist, embryo- 
logist and physiologist are in turn reviewed. There are also 
chapters entitled ‘ Great Steps in Evolution,’ ‘ Variation and 
Heredity,’ ‘Selection,’ “Organism, Function, and Environ- 
ment,’ etc. For those desirous of pursuing the matter further, 
an excellent bibliography is given. 
PLANT LIFE ON LAND. 
Under this title the Cambridge University Press has pub- 
lished a further volume in its ‘ Cambridge Manuals of Science 
and Literature’ series. Its full title is ‘ Plant Life on Land 
considered in some of its biological aspects,’ and is by Prof. 
F. O. Bower, F.R.S. Here again we find * Evolution’ plays a 
prominent part. The author deals with ‘ Present Day Botany 
—a Contrast,’ “The Beach and Rocks,’ ‘ The Bracken Fern,’ 
“The Flower and Metamorphosis,’ ‘ Pollination and Fertiliza- 
tion,’ ‘ Plant Population,’ ‘Sand Dunes,’ ‘ Golf Links,’ etc, 
There are several fine illustrations, some, from photographs, 
being unusually interesting. 
1911 July1. 
