2G6 
THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Having thus landed the reader in a Palaeozoic Scottish bog, one 
begins to appreciate the application of the initial aphorism in the- 
Preface, that “it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive,” as also- 
such newspaper captions as “ Younger Men left Cold by Morphology ,r 
(cf. Morning Post, Sept. 14, 1923) ; and one is left to wish that 
Professor Bower had followed It. L. S. a little farther for inspiration,, 
to warm and tropical seas. Homoplasy has a soothing sound ; but 
just as it has been said that everything in plant-organization is an 
adaptation if one only goes far enough back, so also every surviving 
structural feature must have been eminently homoplastic to begin 
with ; and it is up to the apostle of homoplasy who demonstrates the 
identity of resultant morphology to show also identity of the mould¬ 
ing processes, Many morphological and anatomical schemes, and the 
elaboration of reasonably tenable hypotheses, make tedious reading, 
however skilful, unless illumined by some conception of hoiv the 
machine was worked, and why it changed. Granted that “ it seems 
probable that the Algal progenitors of both generations may have 
been still filamentous when they essayed the transition from water to 
life on land,” it is sufficiently evident that the present analysis of the 
criteria of comparison could h? scarcely taken further without coming 
down to the free cells of the plankton-phase, as equally indicated by 
the story of their reproduction. Hence one awaits with special 
interest the promised synthetic second volume to explain the suc¬ 
cessive stages in the biological conditions to which these beautiful 
plants are the surviving response. 
Typographical presentment, paper, cover, and net price follow 
the lofty standard now recognized as belonging to the Cambridge 
Press. The numerous figures are clear and really do illustrate the 
text. A. H. C. 
Conspectus Florae Fennicee. Yol. VI. Pars v. Scrophulariaceae— 
Dipsacacese. By Hjalmae, Hjelt, 8vo, cloth, pp. 450. 
Helsingfors, 1923. 
The first volume of this Flora ( Fteridophyte to Najadctccce) was 
published in 1888-1895, vol. 2 in 1902, and so on up to this part. 
There remains only the Composite to complete the work, and this 
will not be an easy task, as Norrilin as long ago as 1889 described 
51 new species of Hieracium. Thirty-five } r ears is a long time, but 
the excellent form of the first volume has been maintained throughout. 
One of the most notable features of the Flora is the splendid biblio¬ 
graphy, of which this part contains the seventh instalment. 
Naturally, the literature is mostly Swedish and Finnish, and in this 
part is only one reference to a British book: the general literature is 
given in the first part. It is remarkable that for so small a country 
the literature should be so extensive; in this part alone 160 references 
are given. The distribution is based on the divisions given in the 
Herbarium Musei Fennici (1889), a most interesting little work, in 
which the range of the species is given in parallelograms. 
Contrasting the Flora as contained in this part with our own, the 
