418 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Ferns ; Tropical Forest ; Reconquest of the Water. Here a better title 

 would have been " Ee-adaptation to Water" — water plants being in a 

 degenerate state as compared with land plants, because many structural 

 features are no longer required. Then we find specialities dealt with, as 

 Sense-life and Sensibility ; the Individual Plant ; the effects of the en- 

 vironment come under Sunshine, Kain, and Wind ; Ants and Mites ; 

 Electricity, Radium, N- and X-Rays ; the last chapter being on Evil in 

 Small Doses. 



Mr. Elliot has travelled much, and observed, and is well qualified to 

 add — as he has done — important matters wherever required to the 

 researches of the eminent botanists to whose writings he refers. 



Every one of the chapters is full of interesting matter, and written 

 in a fascinating style, and ought to encourage beginners to observe and 

 generalize about the structure and habits of plants, whenever they are 

 out of doors. 



Here and there we noticed a few points which might be mentioned. 

 As to the origin of vegetation, our own idea is that it began on 

 moist ground, but not actually submerged. Podostemaceae show how 

 degeneracy causes a " sea- weed "-like form. The protonema of mosses 

 resembles a Conferva, but that is no proof it first was one, or any 

 such-like aquatic plant. We are inclined to put bacteria and such 

 microbes as on the lowest level of plant life, by degeneration of higher 

 fungi, rather than algae (p. 41). 



Mr. Elliot adopts the general view that coal vegetation was aquatic or 

 marsh. But, as has been pointed out, the structure of Lepidodendrons, 

 &c, is xerophytic (p. 80). The fruits of composites are said to be mostly 

 carried by wind, but those with a pappus form the minority (pp. 103, 105). 



According to an excellent Atlas published in Cape Town, 100 fathoms 

 would unite the islands on the east (not west, as stated) of Patagonia 

 with South America ; but 2,000 fathoms would be required to join Graham 

 Land and the South Antarctic continent with South America, the Cape 

 and Australia, by northern projections, including Kerguelen's Island 

 (p. 103). This would explain the presence of South American plants in 

 the others, as stated on p. 105, to which list Fuchsia might be added 

 as occurring in New Zealand, though its " home " is South America. 



" Sir Joseph Banks, the Father of Australia." By J. H. Maiden. 

 8vo., 244 pp. (Kegan Paul, London, 1909.) 6s. net. 



" The Committee of the Banks Memorial Fund feel that the memory 

 of the greatest benefactor of early Australia is worthy of some enduring 

 recognition, and a statue in Sydney in the highest style of art has been 

 suggested. . . . This work has only two objects— to disseminate infor- 

 mation concerning Australia's greatest early friend, and to suggest that 

 my readers may be pleased to open their purse-strings for the purpose of 

 establishing a memorial to him." Thus speaks the writer, and he has 

 admirably contributed to the former by a most excellent compilation of 

 all the information about Sir J. Banks he could procure. 



The book has five parts, dealing with : Banks as a Traveller ; his 

 Botanical Activities ; Proteges ; as President of Royal Society, and 

 Friend of Australia ; and the Works and Memorials of Banks. It has 



