488 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



English on the subject with which it deals and has retained that 

 position ever since. It brought together a vast mass of observations 

 on curious aberrations in growth among plants, and it stimulated 

 others to observe and note such deviations as came within their 

 ken. 



No English-speaking authority has set himself the task of collecting 

 and arranging the new facts since, nor have other peoples been much 

 more diligent, for only one serious attempt has been made abroad. 

 Mr. Worsdell, a member of our Scientific Committee, an acute botanist, 

 and a painstaking investigator, has now essayed the task, and has 

 brought together the results of his own observations and those of 

 others, grouped them according to the parts of the plant to which 

 the structures described belong, shown how the structures deviate 

 from the normal, and attempted to point out why the deviations 

 occur as they have. Two volumes are occupied by the discussion, 

 the first being now published. 



Many of the examples described have been brought before the 

 meetings of the Scientific Committee from time to time, and are tc be 

 found recorded on the Minutes in our Journal ; but authorities of all 

 nationalities have been put under contribution, and valuable biblio- 

 graphical lists are given at the end of every chapter. 



It is hardly to be expected that complete lists of deviations from 

 the normal would be included, but one or two omissions will strike 

 observant gardeners as curious. Most have, for example, seen 

 masses of adventitious shoots on the roots of cauliflowers or other 

 members of the cabbage group at times ; but, on the contrary, the 

 many who have tried in vain to obtain buds from the tuberous root 

 of the Dahlia will be interested in Fig. 34, where such a shoot is 

 shown. (We once, and only once, saw such a shoot at Wisley, after 

 man} 7 attempts had been made to obtain one.) Galls are not dealt 

 with, except in a few cases and by occasional passing references. 



Fasciation, leaf-fusion-, enations, ascidia, and all sorts of curious 

 deviations which excite the curiosity and wonder of the cultivator, 

 are ably dealt with, and we have no doubt that this book will, like 

 its predecessor, be valued as the one to which to refer when seeking 

 knowledge of the curious phenomena with which it deals. We shall 

 look forward to perusing the second volume on deviations from the 

 normal in floral structures. The Ray Society is to be congratulated 

 on publishing a work which bids fair to be a worthy successor to the 

 valuable one published forty-six years ago. 



The subject is one which the philosophical botanist will always 

 treat either with a great deal of respect, or with scorn as beneath his 

 contempt. The scorner is wrong, and not the least interesting and 

 valuable part of the present book is that in which the philosophical 

 side of the questions it deals with is discussed. The clash of battles 

 between rival campaigners rings loud here and there. The advocates 

 of the mechanistic and of the teleological theories of plant-life wage 

 war ; the upholders of the chemico-physical outlook towards the 



