512 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Part II., on "Ethics," is rather out of place for discussion in a 

 horticultural journal; so we will leave it for the reader. Though some 

 few points have been alluded to, it must not be supposed that they sample 

 the book, which is very readable,Nand full of important matters under the 

 headings given above. 



"The Bible of Nature." By J. A. Thomson, M.A. 8vo., 248 pp. 

 (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1908.) 4s. 6d. net. 



This little book consists of five lectures delivered at Lake Forest 

 College. Their subjects are : " The Wonder of the World," "History of 

 Things," "Organisms and their Origin," " The Evolution of Organisms," 

 and "Man's Place in Nature." They are very interesting, and written 

 in an easy, popular style which all can follow, though the title " The 

 Bible of Nature " does not appear to us a very happy one. Speaking of 

 the universality of " adaptations," which indicate progress, the author 

 does not allude to innumerable "degradations " wherever Nature finds no 

 further use of structures while readapting organisms to new conditions. 

 Thus submerged aquatic plants are in perfect adaptation to water, though 

 this has the effect of causing a general degeneracy throughout the entire 

 organism. 



Science brings induction and experiment to bear upon objects of 

 observation, but stops short of any inquiry into their primary cause ; 

 the author might have added that the "proof" of an Almighty Mind 

 is based on precisely similar lines of induction, or the accumulation of 

 probabilities. "A 'First Cause' is taken for granted," but the evidence 

 of " intelligence " in that First Cause is equally obvious on scientific reason- 

 ing. After giving a succinct account of "organisms and their origin," 

 evolution is dealt with. It is said that evolution issues from " variability " 

 subjected to the "directive factors of selection and isolation"; but the 

 author does not describe Darwin's use of natural selection aright, for it 

 has no selective power whatever. " ' Of fifty seeds she often brings but 

 one to bear.' The relatively fittest tend to survive and to reproduce, 

 handing on their advantages to their progeny." But Darwin's reason of 

 the survival of one or a few is that all the rest develop in themselves 

 "injurious" — that is, " inadaptive structures," and consequently they 

 must die.* This was a pure surmise, for Nature never makes such 

 injurious characters. The real reason why so few live is a matter of 

 accident. Other plants will not let them grow ; or they get devoured, 

 kc. It is mainly what Darwin called "fortuitous " destruction. 



The volume concludes with a long chapter on " Man's Place in 

 Nature." He gives a succinct account of man's relationship with animals, 

 and alludes to the difficulty of the problem of the ascent of man, who 

 took "probably 300,000 years" to make. "He probably arose by 

 a mutation, i.e. by a discontinuous variation of considerable magni- 

 tude." The late Dr. Carpenter observed that the diminution of the 

 jaw and teeth (used by apes for attack and defence), with the corre- 

 sponding reduction of the temporal muscles, allowed the skull to 

 enlarge and the brain to develop. But this implies an absence of a- 



* Origin of Species, Ac. p. 80, 1st ed. ; p. G3, Oth ed. 



