188 JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rather with botanical dry -bones, it will serve as a skeleton which the 

 intelligent student with a sympathetic teacher will be able to clothe 

 out of Nature's storehouse and round into a fair and pleasant figure. 



" Simple Lessons in Nature Study." By J. O'Neil. Svo., x. + 

 122 pp. (Blackie, London, 1911.) Is. net. 



We are not quite sure of the author's name, which is spelt O'Neill 

 on the title-page and O'Neil in two places on the cover. The book is 

 a sort of elementary plant-life and animal-life book. A quotation will 

 show better than anything else what may be expected in it. Car- 

 bonic acid gas is taken into the interior [of the leaf] , the light from 

 the sun falls on the gas, and with the help of the chlorophyll granules, 

 effects a separation between the oxygen and the carbon; the union 

 between these no longer exists, and most of the oxygen goes back 

 again into the air, leaving the carbon in the leaf. The heat of the 

 sun acting on the water in the porous leaf dissolves the partnership 

 between the hydrogen and oxygen, and, as before, one of the partners — 

 oxygen — vanishes into the atmosphere, leaving the hydrogen behind in 

 the leaf. These interesting processes could not, it is believed, be 

 carried on without the active assistance of the green colouring 

 material " (pp. 32 and 33). We need not multiply instances of loose 

 statements as we might easily do, but it is surely not too much to 

 expect in these days of so many excellent books, that those intended for 

 teachers' use, even though they are elementary, should contain some- 

 thing better than this kind of thing. There are copious illustrations, 

 most of which are famihar. The figure on p. 22 is labelled sweet pea, 

 but it is unlike any in nature. 



"Evolution, Darwinian and Spencerian." By Eaphael Meldola, 

 F.E.S. Svo. 44 pp. (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1910.) Is. 6d. net, 

 paper covers. 



The Herbert Spencer Lecture in the University of Oxford for 1910 

 is here printed. The lecturer, eminent both as a chemist and as an 

 entomologist, compares the evolution theories of Darwin and Spencer, 

 and puts the case for inductive and deductive reasoning so well that all 

 interested in that greater science that should embrace all science should 

 read his remarks. 



" The Feeding of Crops and Stock." By A. D. Hall, M.A., F.E.S. 

 8vo., xvi. -f298 pp. (Murray, London, 1911.) 5s. net. 



Like Mr. Hall's former books this is eminently readable and emi- 

 nently reliable. He has written an account of the way in which plants 

 and animals of the farm obtain and utilize the materials upon which 

 they feed, and in the writing has everywhere appealed to experiment 

 and shown the limitations of our present knowledge. He has found it 

 necessary here and there to traverse again ground covered in his well- 

 known book on the " Soil," but with a freshness and clearness that 

 prevent his words from appearing mere repetitions. 



