214 
NATURE NOTES 
endeavour to get at the truth. I cannot pretend that my part of 
the above explanation is complete or accurate, but I feel safe in 
affirming that when there is obstruction to the passage of the 
electric fluid then violence results. The fluid passes down the 
copper lightning conductor without doing harm, but the unpro- 
tected tower, if struck, suffers much. 
Giles A. D.\ubeny. 
Gidley, Chagford, Dartmoor, May 29, 1899. 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
Practical Introdtictioii to the Study of Botajiy : Flowering Plants. B}' J. 
Bretland Farmer, M.A., Professor of Botany in the Royal College of Science. 
Longmans. Price 2 s. 6d. 
As its title indicates, this is essentially a laboratory guide. The heuristic 
method of teaching has so pervaded other branches of science, and is so clearly 
more educational than the dogmatic, that we cannot but be glad that Professor 
G. E. Col. C. Ph. Pr. 
Transverse Section oe the Young Stem oe Dead Nettle. 
G., epidermal gland ; E., epidermis; Col., collcnchyraa ; C., cortex : 
Ph., phloem; Pr., protoxylem ; Ca., cambium; Xy., xylem ; P., pith. 
Farmer has given us this handbook to its use in botany. At the same time 
teachers and all in authority must realise that in so far as this method lays surer 
foundations it is also far slower. This book is designed for the elementary stage 
of the Science and Art Department’s May examinations, but the work it describes 
can only adequately be accomplished in a year’s course by devoting, we should 
