REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 



553 



book is so big, few are more worthy of a place on the bookshelves of the 

 garden lover than this. 



u Our Woodlands, Heaths, and Hedges." A popular description of 

 British Trees, Shrubs, Wild Fruits, &c, with Notices of Insect Inhabi- 

 tants. By W. S. Coleman, illustrated by the Author. 8vo., 140 pp. 

 (Eoutledge, London.) Is. 



This little book is one of many adapted to encourage observations 

 in plant and animal life. It contains brief but interesting descriptions 

 of many plants. We note one slip. It was not about maple wood tables, 

 but those made of Citrus (Callitris quadrivalvis of N. Africa) that Pliny 

 speaks of as extravagant. An appendix of British lepidopterous insects, 

 the caterpillars of which feed on the trees mentioned, and eight excellent 

 plates of trees and shrubs are included. We can commend this little 

 book as a good companion on a country walk. 



"Plant Physiology and Ecology." By F. E. Clements, Professor 

 of Botany in the University of Minnesota. 8vo., 315 pp. (Constable, 

 London.) 10s. Qd. net. 



This exhaustive treatise is the result of the methods of study first 

 advanced in the author's " Research Methods in Ecology." " The plant 

 is first considered as an individual with respect to factor, function, and 

 form, and then as a member of a plant group or formation." The work 

 contains fifteen chapters. The first discusses the nature of " stimuli and 

 response." Physiological adaptation without change of form is called 

 "adjustment." If structure changes, then the word "adaptation" is 

 used. Chapters II. and III. deal with effects of water treated experi- 

 mentally ; while modifying factors, as of soil, influences of locality, &c, 

 are exhaustively discussed. 



The adjustment to water includes all the ordinary physiological 

 functions of absorption, diffusion, transpiration, &c. Next comes the 

 influences of light and shade ; then adjustments to temperature. 

 Chapters VII. and VIII. deal with adaptations to water and light in 

 changes of structure. Chapter IX. deals with the "origin of new 

 forms," and the author, instead of retaining Darwin's terms " indefinite " 

 and "definite" variations, limits the word "variation" to the former 

 and " adaptation " to the latter. He also still retains " natural selection " 

 in the Darwinian sense; but if there be no "indefinite" variations, by 

 which Darwin meant many "injurious" non-adaptive changes, together 

 with a few "favourable" and adaptive, neither " indefinite " variations 

 nor "natural selection" in "originating" species have any place in 

 evolution. 



Chapter X. is devoted to " Methods of Studying Vegetation," 

 Chapter XI. to "Plant Formation," with illustrations of different kinds. 

 The last two chapters suggest "invasion and succession" and "alterna- 

 tion and zonation " as the causes of change and distribution of habitats. 

 It is a valuable book, and no teacher of advanced botany can well do 

 without it. England is still far behind the world in the matter of 

 ecology ! 



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