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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



given showing in what direction through the stem the sections were 

 taken. The insets, where they occur, detract very much from the 

 appearance of the plate, and many of the plates are too crowded with 

 objects ; for instance in plate vi. had a few of the leaves only been figured by 

 themselves it would have been much easier to have realized the form of 

 the galls which at present are very indistinct ; the male catkins shown 

 on plates xiii., xvi. and xxiv. should have been reproduced on a much 

 larger scale, so that the galls would have been more distinct. The four 

 plates showing galls of Cynips Kollari are very interesting, though 

 perhaps of little scientific value. Plates xlvi. to xlix. are particularly good 

 but lii., liii. and liv. are by no means satisfactory. The descriptions of the 

 galls are followed by a useful list of 184 parasites and inquilines, which 

 have been mentioned in the volume, a table of the months in which 

 the galls may be found, an annotated list of the mid- European Oak 

 galls and an index. Notwithstanding its deficiencies, we can heartily 

 commend this book to any one who is collecting galls, as the plates will 

 greatly help him in identifying those he may find. 



" The Fern World." By Francis George Heath. Eleventh Edition. 

 8vo., 399 pp. (Routledge, London, 1908.) 7s. M. net. 



This book is admirably got up, with 12 coloured plates, and a few 

 minor illustrations depicting the normal forms of our native Ferns, while 

 the letterpress describes them fully and gives some of their habitats in 

 these islands and the countries abroad in which they are also indigenous. 

 Allusions are also made to the several thousand species of Ferns existent 

 in the world, but with all this the material is too scanty to justify 

 the comprehensive title, more especially since, in the author's previous 

 book "The Fern Paradise," he practically exhausted the ground as 

 regards our native Ferns themselves, and thus adds nothing practical 

 in this volume to the contents of its predecessor. It is also obvious 

 that Mr. Heath has devoted but little study to recent literature on the 

 subject, or to the real life history of the plants he treats of. Otherwise 

 he could not possibly have written on pp. 9 and 10, in connection with the 

 peculiar mode of reproduction of Ferns from the spore, that " when the 

 prothallus is perfected the frond-bud," by which he clearly means the em- 

 bedded embryo at the base of the archegonium, " emerges from its cell and 

 is fertilized by the spermatozoid (? antherozoidj." He then proceeds to 

 say that " soon after this process is completed the sperrnatozoids lose their 

 activity and finally disappear. The prothallus too commences to decay, and 

 finally with its little system of cells, it dies, leaving in its place only the 

 fertilized frond bud, which, however, at this stage has no defined likeness to 

 the future and complete frond. The under portion of the frond-bud lying 

 next the damp soil soon, however, begins to form the rootstock, which sub- 

 sequently gives rise to the rootlets, while from its upper portion proceeds 

 the stalk." 



As against this, every fern raiser is aware that so far from the 

 prothallus dying, as described, prior to the appearance of the young Fern, 

 it persists and acts the part of foster mother, so to speak, until the young 

 plant is well rooted. The emergence of the frond-bud for fertilization is 

 equally absurd ; it lies deeply embedded in the substance of the prothallus, 



