188 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
the hod d th 
at one time did duty for scientific investigation—speculations of 
“The methods pursued in the solution of cecological problems were 
reseed ge inadequate, and often utterly unscientific. To observe a 
plants was to assume that they were flotation-devices. The subject 
therefore attracted but few botanists.” Nothing could well be more 
fferent from these fanciful speculations than the careful investi- 
gation of facts and accumulation of evidence upon which Schimper 
based his conclusions—it is the difference between imagination and 
science, between those who are too often and too readily accepted 
as followers of Darwin and the great naturalist himself. 
tt would be impossible in the space at our disposal to give any- 
thing like an adequate notice of this important volume, of which 
the mere summary of contents occupies ten closely printed pages of 
small type. e must content ourselves with directing attention 
to its interest and importance, and to commending the care and 
research to which it is literally true to say that every page bears 
evidence, and of which the bibliography appended to each chapter 
is only one indication. 
The Genus Diospyros in Ceylon: its Morphology, Anatomy, and 
Taxonomy. Part I. By Hersert Wricut. Pp. 106. 
in the laboratory. This first part contains a general statement and 
discussion on the ebony trees, under the following heads :—1. His- 
tory. 2. Distribution in Ceylon. 8. Vegetative characters. 
Anatomy: timber properties, &c. 5. Seedlings. 6. Reproductive 
organs. 7. Affinity. 
The indigenous trees are considered to belong to twenty 
j D 
3 
t 
the wet zone, where the annual rainfall is never less than 80 inches, 
in places often exceeds 800 inches ; i 
where the annual rainfall varies from 70 to 80 inches, the whole of 
