456 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
We are sorry to find that Mr. J. M. B. Taylor is not pleased 
with the brief notice of his Handbook of Plant Collecting pub- 
lished on p. 408. It seems best to let Mr. Taylor state his 
objections in his own way, so we print his letter verbatim et 
literatim ;—‘*It cannot be hidden from any one who cares to 
look at your Review that it is = tinged with an element of 
spleen. You take a quotation from the book without showing its 
connection, yet with that you can 
So far as Reviews go you stand alone in this matter, and it is clear 
that you labour under spleenic error. As to the iluseeakiona they 
do occupy too much space for the on of the book, that is due to an 
error of the Publisher in making them too big. For you to say 
that the book would do without the illustrations, it would be as 
near ie mark to say that you would be improved without your 
eyes, or any of your other five senses. As to the aan style of 
the Sb, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. 
I have your Huropean Ferns, and no doubt you = rey on your 
literary pe as amodel. Let me tell you that your style is stiff 
in the me—and is that which will not suit this part of the 
contr. ‘The language you make use of to describe the suit is that 
ich turns many would be readers away from the study of such 
ecatak objabta “| the ferns. My little book can only be looked 
upon as a labou love, but “om Raw European Ferns it is 
different—you came something of a ercial transaction for 
your pocket. Now with my Fate 66k ‘ib is a guide to what it 
professes, and its teachings are free from error—and gives to the 
world what is new. This cannot be or of = European Ferns: 
it — errors, and as long as r book is in use you are a 
MaNvUFACTURER OF ERRORS—errors for “wish aie in your position is 
fesponsible.” 
Tue latest contribution to newspaper botany comes from a 
recent number of Pearson’s Weekly. It appears under the heading 
* half-a-crown is paid for every question used, and replies at the 
rate of two guineas a column ”’ :—‘‘ 5223. Why baie so Many Plants 
Leaves with Notched Edges? —A few years ago Professor Rudolph, 
in a series of lectures on ‘The Great Wonders Around Us,’ pro- 
pounded a theory of the function of the finely salad edges of 
certain leaves. He considered that these points and edges served 
to permit the escape of ‘electricity. which might otherwise accumu- 
late on the surface of the earth in dangerous bereaehaly and give 
Th 
rise to ascending “ightnien strokes. e very same points and 
edges overt convey away the electricity from oo omni and 
thus to a great extent disarm the tempests. Professor Rudolph 
mpe 
papported his theory by pointing out that the bighaat ‘ee. such as 
pines, have the most pointed leaves. 
