Geology and Natural History. 491 



themselves, and those who now obtain the book in this form will 

 find it very convenient for use. l. v. p. 



10. Trees, A Handbook of Forest Botany for the Woodlands 

 and the Laboratory ; by the late H. Marshall Ward, Professor 

 of Botany in the University of Cambridge (England). Vol. V. 

 Form and Habit. Cambridge, 1909 (The University Press).— 

 The volumes of this series are perfect of their kind. They are 

 handy, well printed, well planned, and well up to the times. The 

 present volume has been prepared from the notes left by the 

 lamented and accomplished botanist, Dr. Ward, who had a 

 remarkable facility in presenting difficult subjects in an attractive 

 manner. Some of our readers will remember the charm which he 

 threw around the mysterious activities in the laboratory of green 

 leaves, imagining himself a guide conducting an inquiring person 

 into the leaf itself. Dr. Percy Groom has managed his task with 

 skill and success. He has not changed Dr. Ward's text in any 

 manner, but he has selected, from abundant material at hand, 

 effective illustrations for every part of the subject. There is not 

 a botanist who cannot derive instruction from this modest and 

 rich treatise on Form. Furthermore the adaptations are clearly 

 described in a thoroughly scientific manner but without the use 

 of too many technical terms, so that it would be possible for any 

 intelligent person, unfamiliar with botany, to gain from these 

 pages a clear notion of the marvelous fitness of organisms to 

 their surroundings. Unquestionably Dr. Ward would have 

 expanded the chapter on Bark somewhat more, but Dr. Groom 

 has done wisely in leaving it about as it was. It will not lead 

 any one astray. The convenient volume, although very small, is 

 provided with an excellent index, rendering it even more useful 

 to every reader. g. l. g. 



11. MendeVs Principles of Heredity ; by W. Bateson, F.R.S., 

 Professor of Biology in the University of Cambridge (England). 

 Cambridge, 1909 (The University Press); New York (G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons). — Professor Bateson has rendered great service 

 by his clear account here given of Gregor Mendel's interesting 

 and buried researches. Few incidents in the history of biological 

 science are more surprising than the utter ignoring of important 

 Work by contemporaries who would have gladly acknowledged 

 their merit if they had been properly brought to general notice. 

 The comprehensive work by Sprengel in regard to the relations 

 of flowers to insects fell stillborn from the press, and was abso- 

 lutely neglected by all of his associates and soon was totally for- 

 gotten, until after fifty years it came into prominence as an 

 important factor in the literature of adaptation. Goethe's treatise 

 on Metamorphosis was likewise neglected and did not receive any 

 recognition as a suggestive speculation until chance brought it to 

 the notice of two botanists who saw that it contained a solid 

 although small grain of truth. Mendel's case is harder to 

 explain, for his treatise appeared to be in proper form for due 

 consideration by students in biology, but it was completely lost 



