NATURE NOTES 
1 16 
not possess Professor Bell's edition of the “Natural History,” so that matter 
which appears in the introductory portion of that work, especially White’s Oxford 
diaries, should have been reproduced here ; and we should have liked a biblio- 
graphy and a fuller collection of “ appreciations ” by the many naturalists who 
are indebted to Gilbert White. 
The Natural History of Selborne. By Gilbert White. Edited by Charles 
Weekes. J. M. Dent and Co. Temple Classics. Price is. 6d. cloth, 2s. 
leather. 
Mr. Weekes’s name is unknown to us as that of a naturalist ; but, in spite of 
some trifling slips, the four pages of “Editorial Appendix” and the thirty-two 
pages of Notes which he has added to this dainty pocket edition of our beloved 
classic seem to us to be models of editorial modesty and helpfulness. A charm- 
ing view at Selborne forms the frontispiece ; but the publishers might well have 
omitted the worn blocks from Bewick’s “ Birds.” 
Disease in Plants. By Professor H. Marshall Ward, Sc.D., F.K.S. Macmillan 
and Co. Price 7s. 6d. 
Everything that Professor Marshall Ward gives us is sure to be accurate, 
novel and suggestive. In addition to the ripe fruit of his own researches, he lays 
before us the latest results of Continental and American workers ; and yet we 
are not satisfied. We want a comprehensive work on vegetable pathology, and 
he gives us a series of little books. This volume does not contain 300 pages of 
text, and its type is large, and yet, out of this, 80 pages are occupied by an 
account — excellent in itself — of vegetable physiology, of the plant in health, 
whilst 30 more, or. “ Life and Death,” are not very closely connected with the 
main subject. It is true that the title should perhaps suffice to warn us that plant- 
diseases will not be very fully described ; but much of the book, we confess, 
appears to us disappointingly like an introductory course of lectures. In them- 
selves, we hasten to add, many of the chapters are excellent, as for instance, the 
cogent defence of physiology as against mere organic analysis, and especiall)' that 
entitled “ The Biology of Soil,” which every student of agriculture or horticulture 
should read. In spite of an occasional slightly Germanic obscurity of style, 
passage after passage was marked for quotation ; but space only permits the 
following : — 
“ The foundation of a knowledge of disease in plants . . . centres in the 
understanding of the pathology of living cells. 
“ If a suitable mass of living cells is neatly cut with a sharp razor the first 
perceptible change is one of colour : the white ‘ flesh ’ of a potato or an apple, 
for instance, turns brown as the air enters the cut cells, and the microscope 
shows that this browning affects cell-walls and contents alike. The cut cells 
also die forthwith ; and the o.xygen of the air combining with some of the 
constituents forms the brown colouring matter which soaks into the cell-walls. 
The uninjured cells below then grow longer, pushing up the dead debris, and 
divide across by walls parallel to the plane of the wound, and so form series 
of tabular cells with thin walls, which also soon turn brown and die, the 
cell-walls meanwhile undergoing changes which convert them into cork. The 
living cells deeper down are now shut off from the outer world by a skin of 
several layers, of cork-cells, which prevent the further free access of air or 
moisture. During the period of active cell-division which initiates the cork, the 
temperature of the growing cells rises : a sort of fever (wound-fever) is induced, 
evidently owing to the active respiration of the growing cells.” 
Professor Marshall Ward has added to the value of his book by giving 
references to the literature of the subject ; but we hope some day to see that more 
comprehensive treatise from his pen. 
Received : — Knowledge, Science Gossip, The Naturalist, The Naturalists' 
Journal, The Irish Naturalist, The Animals' Friend, Our Animal Friends, The 
Animal World, Humanity, and The Agricultural Economist for May. 
