gray's elements of botany. 93 



There are some of us old-fashioned enough to be thankful for a 

 book which begins somewhat in the good old way to which we in 

 England were accustomed in Oliver's ' Lessons,' and tells us about 

 things which we can see and handle and examine without the aid 

 of a microscope. " No mention has been made," says Dr. Gray, 

 11 of certain terms and names which recent cryptogainically- 

 mmded botanists, with lack of proportion and just perspective, are 

 endeavouring to introduce into phanerogamic botany, and which 

 are not needed nor appropriate, even in more advanced works, for 

 the adequate recognition of the ascertained analogies and 

 homologies." It is certain that the fondness for new terms has 

 been indulged to an inconvenient extent, and it may be doubted 

 whether the actual knowledge of the plants themselves is always 

 promoted by the system of instruction now in vogue. The story of 

 a student who had mastered the structure of Peziza, but who did 

 not at all recognise our common scarlet species as the plant she 

 had been studying with creditable results is, we believe, perfectly 

 true ; and it is certain that the present mode of teaching does not 

 encourage w^hat used to be known as " field botany." 



There is no need to describe Dr. Gray's little book in detail. 

 Beginning with a description of flax as a type plant, he then takes 

 the different organs and their modifications in detail, with a chapter 

 on fertilization and an interesting section on " Vegetable Life 

 and Work." — the volume ending with an excellent Glossary and 

 Index of Terms. Dr. Gray's work, throughout his long and active 

 botanical career, has been marked by clearness and consistent 

 usefulness ; and these characteristics are as noticeable in a work 

 hke the present as in the greater undertakings by which his 

 position among botanists has been secured. 



In an interesting little illustrated volume entitled ' The Vegetable 

 Lamb of Tartary ; a Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant ' (Sampson 

 Low & Co. : 8vo, pp. xi. 112), Mr. Henry Lee has established to 

 his own satisfaction the identity of the " Scythian Lamb," which 

 ^as first brought into prominence by Sir John Mandeville, with 

 the cotton plant ; and he certainly makes out a good case in support 

 of his view. In spite of the general belief which identified the 

 " Scythian Lamb " with the rhizome of a fern, which, in allusion 

 to this belief, was styled Dicktonia Barometz, Mr. Lee considers that 

 Jbese rhizomes and the " Lambs M made from them M had no more 

 to do with the origin of the fable of the ■ Barometz ' than the arti- 

 ficial mermaids so cleverly made by the Japanese have had to do 

 Jrth the origin of the belief in fish -tailed human beings and 

 divinities." For the evidence which the author brings in support 

 of his theory, and which has been carefully and exhaustively compiled 

 from a large number of writers, we must refer our readers to the 

 volume itself, which is further enriched by a readable sketch of the 

 history of cotton and the cotton trade. 



The first part of the ■ Transactions and Proceedings of the 

 Perthshire Society of Natural Science' contains an interesting 



