554 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



"The Essentials of Cytology." By C. E. Walker. 8vo., 189 pp. 

 (Constable, London.) 7s. 0>d. net. 



This is a very important up-to-date work on the celk It deals with 

 the structure and division of the cell in all its phases, both vegetative 

 and reproductive, and of the male and female, fertilisation of uni- and 

 multi -cellular forms. The tenth chapter deals with the probable 

 individuality of the chromosomes, and the eleventh is on the morpho- 

 logical aspect of the transmission of hereditary characters. Every 

 student or teacher of botany will find this a most comprehensive treatise, 

 abounding with illustrations. 



"The Lesson of Evolution." By F. W. Hutton, F.R.S. 8vo., 

 101 pp. (Duckworth, London.) 2s. net. 



This little book consists of three essays on " The Lesson of Evolution " 

 and " The Progress of Life," commencing with a short account of the 

 growth of natural philosophy. The author gives an outline of evolution, 

 both inorganic and organic. He takes it for granted that living organisms 

 first " appeared on the surface of the ocean ; then increased in size, 

 varied in many directions, and in time discovered the bottom of the 

 sea, . . . changing from swimming to crawling creatures ; . . . they 

 finally became land plants and animals." It is as well to emphasise 

 the fact that this is a pure assumption without a particle of evidence, 

 the earliest rocks revealing nothing of the sort. It is quite as likely 

 that the first organism rose on moist ground, then spread to the sea, 

 and so in time gave rise to fishes, &c. " Evolution is evidently due to 

 the action of mind." Here we quite agree with the author, but he does 

 not appear to have heard of "directivity" or the "director of forces" 

 in all animals and plants, which brings about " adaptive response " 

 to new conditions of life ; consequently the sentence, " We now are 

 compelled to assume as First Cause a power [rather a Director] outside 

 of Nature, without which the material universe could never have come 

 into existence," should be altered to embrace the most modern view — 

 viz., that the creative power is immanent rather than external. He holds 

 to the Darwinian sense of natural selection in evolution, now quite 

 discarded by ecological botanists at least. Ecology supplied the correction 

 to the author's statement, " There is no general law either for develop- 

 ment or for extinction." Response with adaptation to clianged conditions 

 of life is the first, and the struggle for existence is the second. 



" Darwinism and Lamarckism, Old and New." Four Lectures. 

 By F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., &c. 8vo., 169 pp. (Duckworth, London.) 

 3s. Gd. net. 



Though published in England, these lectures were delivered in New 

 Zealand, which may account for the total absence of all reference to 

 ecology, pursued vigorously in the United States, England, and on the 

 Continent. One hundred and thirty-three pages are devoted to Darwinism 

 and sixty-six only to Lamarckism. The author is in favour of natural 

 selection, for he says : " It is natural selection, working with other 

 forms of isolation, which has brought about the main progress of life." 



