30 
THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
sentatives of the main groups of plant life, with a little physiology 
introduced where opportunity offered. Mr. Tansley’s volume does not 
in the least recall the original course. The plan of the book is 
explained in some detail in the preface. It is essentially biological. 
After an introductory lecture on the general characters and differences 
in animals and plants, the student is introduced to the most im¬ 
portant organic substances which make up the plant-body, and then 
to a consideration of some of the physical characters of organic sub¬ 
stances and of protoplasm. Then follows an account of amoebic and 
of the chief functions of organisms in general, and this again is 
succeeded by a general account of the cell. The green plant-cell and 
its physiology is next explained, and then the plant without chlorophyll 
is illustrated by 3 r east and bacteria, followed by tjyes of saprophytic 
and parasitic fungi. The origin of sex is traced in the simple green 
algae; and Fucus illustrates a primitive tissue differentiation. Liver¬ 
worts, Mosses, and Terns are treated very brieHv, and the rest of the 
volume is given to the study of the form, life-history, and physiology 
of the seed-plant. 
At the close of each chapter (except the last) are given sugges¬ 
tions for practical work occupying from 2 to 2^ hours ; these follow 
pretty closely the schedules of the Cambridge Course. The illustra¬ 
tions, which are clear and often diagrammatic, are copied, with or 
without modification, from published figures. 
Mr. Tansley has produced an eminently useful, well-written, and 
readable introduction to the study of plant life; the matter is well 
arranged and the text clearly printed. 
A. B. IL 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 
We take from the Times the following summary of the life of the 
late Henry John Elwes, who died at his family residence at Coles- 
borne, Gloucestershire. He “ was born on May 10, 1846, and was 
educated at Eton and abroad. After serving for five years in the 
Scots Guards, he retired with the rank of captain. In his travels he 
visited, often several times, Turkey, Asia Minor, Tibet, India, Nepal, 
Sikkim, North America, Mexico, Chile, Russia, Siberia, Formosa, 
China, and Japan. He was the scientific member of the Indian 
Embassy to Tibet in 1886, and represented Great Britain at botanical 
and horticultural congresses at Petrograd and Amsterdam. Of the 
Boyal Horticultural Society he was a past vice-president and Victoria 
medallist, and past president of the Royal English Arboricultural 
Society and of the Royal Entomological Society of London.” A 
fuller and appreciative account of Elwes’s work, with a graphic 
sketch of his striking personality, is contributed to the Gardeners' 
Chronicle of Dec. 6 by his friend Mr. F. R. S. Balfour, accompanied 
by an excellent portrait. Although his name is chiefly connected 
with trees and tree-growth, Elwes’s interest in botany was by no 
means limited to that branch of the science ; in 1880 he published, 
in a handsome folio volume with plates by Fitch, A Monoqraph of 
Lilium ; numerous plants discovered by him during his travels have 
been figured in the Botanical Magazine , and it is due to his interest, 
