86 



grains are referred to as seeds. On page 59 we read that " the 

 large majority of the plants whose pollen give rise to hay fever 

 are worthless weeds," yet the list of well-known offenders in this 

 respect includes such economically important plants as cherry, 

 clover, corn, timothy, rose, and others, and numerous trees of 

 great importance for timber. 



Chapter V, Tlie "intelligence" of plants, is mainly a com- 

 mentary on Alaeterlinck's essay, L'intelligence des fleurs, which 

 the author apparently accepts, littcratini. He quotes Maeter- 

 linck's citation of the seeds of the mistletoe, juniper and moun- 

 tain-ash. " which provide for their dissemination by birds and 

 which, to entice them . . . lurk inside a sweet husk." Alaeter- 

 linck interprets this as evidence on the part of the plant, of " a 

 powerful reasoning faculty ... a remarkable understanding of 

 final causes." Reinheimer (p. 87) challenges anyone " to produce 

 a better and more rational interpretation of these phenomena " ; 

 and adds that, " the assumption is by no means fanciful that the 

 plant is also a direct sustainer of animal intelligence. The animal 

 takes in ' knowledge ' with its food ... * knowledge ' which is 

 ' predigested ' by the plant." In this connection, it would be 

 malicious to note that, toward the end of the same paragraph, the 

 author quotes Prof. John Dewey as saying that, " it is not we 

 who think in any actively responsible sense ; thinking is rather 

 something that happens in us." 



C. Stuart Gager. 



Clements's Rocky Mounta'n Flowers* 



A lady, intensely struck with the wealth of form and coloring 

 of the Texas wild flowers, once wrote me inquiring for a book 

 describing and illustrating this flora in such a way that she could 

 with her all but forgotten elementary botany " spot " their names 

 and learn more about them. I wrote her, regretting the lack of 



* Clements, Frederic Edward and Edith Schwartz Clements. Rocky Moun- 

 tain Flowers. An illustrated Guide for Plant-Lovers and Plant-Users. Field 

 ed. Pp. xxxi + 392. Illustrated. The H. W. Wilson Co., New York. 1920. 

 Price $4.50. 



