EE VIEWS. 
87 
tendril of Sicyos. It appears liardly credible that their outer surfaces could 
have actually grown in length, which implies a permanent modification of 
structure, in so short a time. The growth, moreover, on this view must be 
considerable, for if the touch has been at all rough the extremity is curled 
in two or three minutes into a spire of several turns.” It must be at once 
confessed that in regard to this question the probability of the argument 
lies on Mr. Darwin’s side. For it is utterly impossible to suppose that any 
development of tissue could occur in so short a period of time. But this 
is only one point of interest in the work before us, which contains many. 
For example, there is the curious fact that a climbing rose will ascend the 
walls of a house if covered with trellis, without there being any explanation 
of the fact. Mr. Darwin says : — “How this is effected I know not ; for the 
young shoots of one such rose when placed in a pot in a window bent irre- 
gularly towards the light during the day and from the light during the 
night, like the shoots of any common plant; so that it is not easy to 
understand how they could have got under a trellis close to the wall.” And 
we do not see that Professor Asa Gray has done very much to help us on this 
point, though Mr. Darwin thinks he has. Indeed, we are very much dis- 
posed to consider that the tendency of certain climbing plants to creep along 
and to show an apparent knowledge of the parts on which they are growing 
is only to be explained by assuming the possession by plants of certain 
powers that have been hitherto allowed by Biologists to exist in animals 
alone. And we think that anyone who carefully reads this book will see 
that it is utterly impossible to explain certain motions of plants by the 
ordinary rules of botanists. We should have liked to quote the author’s 
summary on this very important point, but as we cannot, we would 'especi- 
ally direct our readers’ attention to page 202, and that of succeeding para- 
graphs. We cannot do better than conclude our notice of this excellent 
book with the following quotation: — “We see how high in the scale of 
organisation a plant may rise when we look at one of the more perfect ten- 
dril-bearers. It first places its tendrils ready for action as a polypus places 
its tentacula. If the tendril be displaced it is acted on by the force of gravity 
and rights itself. It is acted on by the light and bends towards or from it, 
or disregards it, whichever may be most advantageous. During several 
-days the tendrils or internodes, or both, spontaneously revolve with a steady 
motion. The tendril strikes some object, and quickly curls round and firmly 
grasps it. In the course of some hours it contracts into a spire dragging 
up the stem, and forming an excellent spring. Ail movements now cease. 
By growth the tissues soon become wonderfully strong and durable. The 
tendril has done its work, and has done it in an admirable manner.” 
THE DAWN OF LIFE.* 
I N the above work Dr. Dawson has laid before us, in a clear and able 
manner, his views, and of those also who coincide with him, as to the 
nature of a remarkable fossil structure found in the ancient Laurentian 
* “ The Dawn of Life.” By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S. London, 187 5. 
