Reviews and Book Notices. 



389 



We have received No. 15 of the Journal and Transactions of the 

 Leeds Astronomical Society for the year 1907. Leeds, R. Jackson & vSon, 

 1908. 81 pp., price 2/-. This volume bears strong evidence of the vitality 

 of the Society, and of the variety of subjects discussed by its members, 

 all having a strong bearing on the Society's work. Amongst the many 

 items are ' Astronomy without Instruments,' by J. A. Hardcastle ; ' Recent 

 Observations ' and ' Astronomy in Tennyson,' by the editor, C. T. Whit- 

 mell ; ' Astronomical Research in 1906,' by the President, Aquila Dodgson 

 (a portrait of whom appears as frontispiece to the publication) ; ' The 

 Transit Instrument,' by E. K. Spiegelhalter, and ' Has Science Killed 

 Romance,' by Miss Tranmar. The last is an exceedingly clever and enter- 

 taining paper, on quite original lines. Her conclusion is that' Romance 

 is not murdered, but married by Science.' There are also several pages 

 devoted to the work of the society. Far from being a ' dry ' production, 

 this Journal of Transactions is exceedingly entertaining. 



The Origin of a Land Flora : A Theor^^ based upon the facts of 

 alternation, by F. O. Bower, Sc.D., F.R.S. MacMillan & Co. 727 pp., 

 price 18/- net. 



In a substantial volume of over seven hundred closely-printed pages, 

 Prof. Bower presents one of the most scholarly contributions to botanical 

 science that we have seen for some time. It is divided into three parts : — 

 (i) ' Statement of the Working Hypothesis ; (2) Detailed Statement of 

 Facts ; and (3) Conclusion. The first section contains twenty chapters 

 and an Introduction ; the second, a similar number, and the third, seven 

 chapters. There are also over 360 figures, either from careful drawings, 

 or from actual photographs of microscopic sections, etc. 



A fresh enquiry into the nature and origin of Alternation in Arche- 

 goniate plants was stimulated as a result of the discovery by Farlow of 

 apogamy in ferns, in 1874 ; and of the demonstration, a decade later, by 

 Druery, of instances of apospory in ferns. Prof. Bower followed with his 

 own observations, and to him it seemed probable that some biological 

 cause had determined the prevalence and constancy of the alternation, 

 to which apogamy and apospory appeared as occasional exceptions. The 

 theory was entertained that the change of conditions involved in the 

 invasion of the land by organisms originally aquatic had played a prominent 

 part in the establishment of those alternating phrases of the life-cycle, 

 which are so characteristic of Archegoniate plants. So long ago as 1889 

 Prof. Bower had written several chapters of a treatise on this subject ; 

 but the necessary facts were then found to be so imperfectly known that 

 the full discussion of the matter was deferred, and the work abandoned. 

 Instead, the Biological Theory of Antithetic Alternation was briefly stated 

 in a paper in the ' Annals of Botany ' (1890). The main position of 

 Celakovsky, in discriminating between Homologous and Antithetic 

 Alternation was adopted, but the latter type, as seen in Archegoniate 

 plants, was recognised as having been fixed and perpetuated in accordance 

 with the adaptation of aquatic organisms to a Land-Habit. Between 

 1 894- 1 903 the ' Studies in the jNIorphology of Spore-producing Members ' 

 appeared as preliminary investigations. In 1894 Strasburger contributed 

 his well-known paper on the ' Periodic Reduction of Chromosomes,' in 

 which he brought forward facts to establish the cytological distinction of 

 the alternating generations, his theoretical position being practically 

 identical with that of Prof. Bower's paper of some years earlier. Now, 

 after seventeen years, Prof. Bower has been able to state the biological 

 argument much more fully, strengthened by many new facts. These the 

 student will find in the present volume, a work which at once takes its 

 place with those of Hofmeister, Sachs and Strasburger. At last English 

 botanists can feel that they have a work in their own language, produced 

 by one of themselves, which will hold its own against the scholarly works 

 which previously seemed to be entirely ' made in Germany ! ' The pub- 

 lishers, Messrs. MacMillan, cannot be thanked too much for their share in 

 bringing ' The Origin of a Land Flora ' before English students. 



i>9oS October i. 



