246 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
passed upon them as a whole when these experiments have been 
repeated by other observers. His theory of the fundamental uni- 
formity of all plant response is certainly most illuminating, and 
one for which he brings forward a soe: weight of evidence. Some 
curvature is due to the retarded growth of the upper concave side. 
The curvature should have been ice by the ee of cold 
on the lower side, since the lower temperature would retard the 
growth on that side; the application of cold on the other side 
should id oa increased the curvature. Exactly opposite 
sults 
re ere, however, obtained. In many cases, too, the enormous 
magnification to gaa h he su tal = records makes one a little 
doubtful as to their trustworthine In his ingenious balanced 
a iiograph ” for studying parities of growth there is a curious 
mistake as to the action of a syphon, the rate of flow from which 
would, of course, vary with the level of the fluid in the vessel to be 
emptied. The author sometimes shows an unfamiliarity with bio- 
logical ideas when, for example, he refers to the upper and lower 
balves of cells as being of different age; or when he considers 
that all seedlings of the same ‘‘ batch” will show constant heredity. 
In the matter of water-ascent he brings forward no direct evidence 
in favour of his views, and Strasburger’s poisoning experiments 
can hardly be so lightly dismissed. 
Whether Prof. Bose’s views stand or fall must remain for the 
future to decide, but the value of his aie lies in the general 
theory put forward, and in the fact that he is the first to apply 
to the study of plant response as a whole the apparatus of 
muscle-physiology, and to elaborate that apparatus to an extra- 
ey degree. The book, which is packed with hundreds of 
new ex periments and with descriptions of numerous pieces of in- 
geniously devised apparatus, certainly marks an epoch in the method 
of attack on the problems of irritability in plants. vies 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, 
t the ae of the Linnean pay on June 7th, the 
General Secretary exhibited a small ie ine on panel of 
pri 
by C. E. Wagstaff, and pee by Ghaslad "Knight for the Bocicty 
for the oe of Useful Kn wledge. _This print Le to be 
picture by L. Pasch which Robert Brown gave to this Society in 
1853 on his quitting the Chair, the history of which is well im 
