Miscellaneous. 



230 



I March 1908. 



the water-tissue is partially emptied and 

 the leaves recover during the night. 

 For the rest the author holds that the 

 xerophily of mangroves and of other 

 halophytes has been much overrated by 

 Schimper and others. They are scarcely, 

 if at all, more protected in this respect 

 than many trees growing in similar 

 situations but not in a salty soil. 



Dr. Holtermann describes three other 

 formations of stand-plants besides the 

 mangroves, viz., first the plants of 

 moist sand, which fall into two cate- 

 gories : (1) those growing on the edge of 

 the sea, absorbing salt; water, and 

 possessing water-tissue ; (2) those grow- 

 ing further from the sea, with fresh 

 bottom-water, which have no special 

 xerophilous adaptations. Secondly, the 

 dune plants, a highly xerophilous type ; 

 and, thirdly the plants growing on salty 

 mud, which have internal water-tissue, 

 and resemble succulent desert-plants in 

 many anatomical features. These three 

 formations have close parallels among 

 the strand formations of temperate 

 regions. This classification is good so 

 far as it goes, but it ignores the beach- 

 jungle (Barriugtonia-formation of Schim- 

 per), which the author apparently in- 

 cludes with the damp lowland forest 

 type. Yet this formation, though not 

 well developed in Ceylon, certainly has 

 an independent existence ; it is much in 

 need of exact study and delimitation. 



The author goes on to describe the 

 damp lowland woods, the dry plains of 

 the north and east, and the upland 

 vegetation, as also the epiphytes and 

 parasites of Ceylon. Many interesting 

 observations are contaiued in this part 

 of the work. Dr. Holtermann also dis- 

 cusses at some length the question of 

 leaf-fall in the tropics, and concludes 

 that though it is a hereditary character, 

 it is, in the endemic species, deter- 

 mined by the dry season, and, in general, 

 leaves fall when their structure does not 

 fit them to withstand the conditions 

 prevailing during the time the trees are 

 bare. A similar explanation is given of 

 the occurrence of annual rings of growth 

 in the wood, the author relating tlie- 

 renewed formation of wide xylem ele- 

 ments to the increased transpiration 

 taking place when a crop of young 

 leaves is produced. 



The final section of the work is devoted 

 to a discussion of " Direct Adaptation," 

 in the course of which an account is 

 given of many interesting experiments 

 which add considerably to our know- 

 ledge of adaptive reactions under new 

 conditions. The author rightly classes 

 all these as phenomena of irritability, 

 but draws the conclusion that such 

 characters, acquired during the lifetime 



of the individual, can in process of time 

 be fixed and inherited. This conclusion 

 is, of course, wholly unwarranted ; in 

 fact, it is totally irrelevant. And mean- 

 while the mystery of adaptive reaction, 

 so widespread a phenomenon in the 

 biological world, remains unsolved. 

 Until we know a great deal more than 

 we do at present about the physico-che- 

 mical connection of stimulus and res- 

 ponse, it is likely to remain so. 

 —Nature, Feb, 6. A. G. T. 



INDIAN AGRICULTURE. 



Br Henry Staveley Lawrence, i.c.s-, 

 Director of Agriculture, Bombay. 



(Continued from p. 143.) 

 Establishment of Department of 

 Agriculture. 



If this retrospect proves the fallacy of 

 the view that Indian agriculture is, or 

 has ever been, in a condition of unpro- 

 gressive immutability, it remains to con- 

 sider the responsibility of the State in 

 regard to the guidance and encourage- 

 ment of its progress, the machinery of 

 the new Departmaut of Agriculture, the 

 programme of its work, and its prospect 

 of success. 



The arguments which are used in this 

 country against State action, and which 

 appears even here to be losing their in- 

 fluence on public opinion, are not equally 

 applicable to India. The classes which 

 possess wealth or landed estates are 

 divorced by sentiment and tradition 

 from the pursuit of agriculture, and the 

 S tate is face to face with a vast peasant 

 tenantry who are debarred by their 

 ignorance from any knowledge of agri- 

 cultural developments outside their 

 village, and by their poverty from risk- 

 ing the smallest loss hi new experiments. 



Further, in a country where the land 

 is nationalised, and the State draws one- 

 third of its revenues from the national 

 rental, it is peculiarly incumbent on the 

 Stite to discharge functions which in a 

 different economy may be regarded as 

 the sphere of the private landowner. 



Tiiis is, indeed, no new doctrine, though 

 circumstances have conspired to post- 

 pone to the present time effective 

 measures towards its realisation. 



In 1854 the Court of Directors in the 

 famous despatch which established higher 

 education in India stated their opinion 

 that '" there was no single advantage that 

 could be afforded to the vast rural popu- 

 lation of India that would equal the in- 

 troduction of an improved system of 

 agriculture." 



