April 28, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



619 



Bryophytes." "In the mosses * * the per- 

 sistence of the motile spermatozoid indicates 

 the derivation of the Archegoniates from aquatic 

 ancestors." "The Pteridophytes, also, show 

 traces of an aquatic ancestry in the develop- 

 ment of spermatozoids, which require water in 

 order that they may reach the archegouium." 



"Of the Spermatophytes the Gymnosperms 

 are obviously the lowest types, i. e. , they show 

 more clearly their derivation from the Pterido- 

 phj'tes." " The Angiosperms are preeminently 

 the modern plant type. These have largely 

 crowded out the other earlier types of vegeta- 

 tion, and at present comprise a majority of 

 existing species." "It is among the Angio- 

 sperms that the plant body reaches its highest 

 expression. In the keen struggle for existence 

 among the manifold forms of plants the An- 

 giosperms have shown themselves to be extra- 

 ordinarilj' plastic, and have developed every 

 possible device to enable them to survive this 

 fierce competition." 



We need quote no more from this very sug- 

 gestive and very readable book. Every botanist 

 and every earnest botanical student will read 

 it with interest and profit. 



Charles E. Bessey. 



The University of Nebraska. 



Die Spiele der Mensehen. Von Karl Groos. 



Jena. 1899. 



Professor Groos follows up his work on Ani- 

 mal Play with his promised book on Human 

 Play. He divides this last work into two 

 sections, the fii'st discussing the facts of play 

 under headings, Touch Plays, Temperature, 

 Hearing, Sight, Motor Plays of various kinds, 

 and purely psychic plays; the second, dis- 

 cussing theories of play under headings, 

 Physiological, Biological, Psychological, iEs- 

 thetic, Sociological and Pedagogical. The gen- 

 eral grouping of facts is, as regards biological 

 results, into activities which serve as exercise 

 and those which serve as display in impressing 

 others — that is in the two divisions, where in- 

 dividual significance is dominant, or social sig- 

 nificance. Of course, this is a quite objective 

 classification ; the child not consciously taking 

 exercise — this being really work — but continu- 

 ing the activity for its immediate pleasurable- 



ness. The showing-oflf play is largely con- 

 sciously such; there is here more of the subjective 

 and teleological factor. 



Under Hearing and Sight Plays Professor 

 Groos is quite full and interesting, really giving 

 in outline the evolution of these senses in the 

 race and individual. We might ask why he 

 divides Hearing Play into passive and active, 

 and not other sense plays. The child is, indeed, 

 diverted either by your singiug, or by his singing 

 to himself, but also both by your passing things 

 before his eyes and himself passing things be- 

 fore his own eyes. Later he both looks at 

 pictures in books and draws pictures for him- 

 self. Indeed, it is plain that gratification of 

 any sense may be either active or passive, the 

 active side leading ofi" into art activity and art 

 work. 



Professor Groos's account of Motor Plays is 

 hardly as full and satisfactory as that on Sense 

 Plays. We find here, as elsewhere, too often a 

 heaping-up of facts and of quotations with 

 very cursory interpretation. Thus (p. 95) he 

 rather hastily lumps the American habit of 

 gum chewing with betel-chewing, and with the 

 habit of chewing bits of sticks and grass, as 

 motor plays for jaws and tongue. But while it 

 is plain that the gum-chewer may use a piece 

 gum as a mouth-plaything, yet to a large extent 

 gum chewing is merely a morbid nervous habit, 

 or a means of gratifying sense of taste, and in 

 both these ways not play. So also the athlete 

 who chews gum or other articles during a foot- 

 ball game is not in this playing. Chewing is 

 only play when it is chewing for chewing's sake, 

 and not as a mere relief from nervous tension, 

 or for taste pleasure or to help endurance and 

 grit. 



Professor Groos rightly regards the psycho- 

 logical mark of plaj' not as imitation, but as 

 direct pleasurableness. The mere biological 

 activity comes first as outcome of bare physio- 

 logical impulse ; thus the infant grasping indefi- 

 nitely feels something soft, experiences pleasure 

 and keeps handling the object. Objectively 

 and biologically all this activity is play, but 

 psychologically only the later half (p. 95). 

 As to physiology, " Es sind zwei Hauptprinci- 

 pien, die eine psj-chologische Theorie des Spiels 

 beherrschen miissen, das der Entladung iiber- 



