REVIEW, 
LECTTJBES ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OE PLANTS by 
JULIUS VON SACHS. Translated by H. Marshall Ward. 
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1887. 836 pp., 455 woodcuts. 
The days of hack-translators, — at least as far as science is con- 
cerned, — are, we trust, numbered. Every one now-a-days expects 
that a scientific book shall be translated by some one conversant 
with its subject-matter. In this respect Professor Sachs’s latest book 
is fortunate, and in welcoming the translation we must record our 
satisfaction at seeing the name of Professor Marshall Ward on the 
title-page as that of the translator. He has done his work solidly 
and well, and has produced a readable and trustworthy English 
version. And if here and there a Germanism remains, we must 
remember how penetrating and insidious an essence this same 
Germanism is, how it lurks in the simplest phrases, hiding in the 
crannies between the words, whence nothing short of ruthless 
demolition of the original construction will completely remove its 
traces. The book has been well got up by the Clarendon Press, 
the only criticism that we have to make being a gentle complaint 
against the similarity in its outward garb to that of the ‘Text-Book/ 
In this matter we have long ago learned to appreciate the wisdom 
of bees who, as Hermann Muller has shown, insist on closely 
allied flowers being distinguished by differences in colour, so that 
they may not lose time in mistaking one for the other. 
No one with a knowledge of what Professor Sachs has done in 
Botany can be otherwise than grateful for the powerful influence 
which his teaching has had on the progress of the science. In 
the forefront of those who owe him a debt of thanks, we place 
ourselves. And we give emphatic expression to our recognition 
of his great services whether in teaching or research, lest in our 
criticism of this his latest book our lasting admiration of what he 
has done should be forgotten. 
The motives which induced the author to undertake the present 
G 
