WARMING-JOHANNSEN, Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Botanik. Herausgegeben von E. P. MEINECKE. Erster Teil. 8vo. Pp. 480, tt. 444. Borntraeger, Berlin, 1907.

THIS is a German translation of the Danish text-book of botany, the fourth edition of which was published in 1901. Some delay has arisen in the issue of the work, the printing of which began in 1904; the first part now to hand comprises three-fourths of the whole, and the remainder is promised at once. It is to be hoped that there will be no further delay in the completion of the work, which at present breaks off in the middle of a chapter and lacks the very necessary index. When completed it promises to be quite one of the best of the recent text-books on general botany. În point of size the book will be larger than the well-known and widely used Strasburger Lehrbuch der Botanik, but the WarmingJohannsen work corresponds only to about half of the other book; that is to say, to the general portion as distinguished from the special treatment of the great divisions of the plant-world. Hence in the newer work we have a much more exhaustive treatment of general morphology, cell-structure, general anatomy and physiology than was presented in the Bonn text-book edited by Dr. Strasburger. The treatment is clear, the illustrations are numerous and helpful, and the book should prove of great value to students who need a somewhat fuller exposition of the facts of general botany. Of the twelve sections into which the subjectmatter falls, the first portion includes numbers 1 to 7 and part of section 8, that is to say, the general morphology, cell-structure, anatomy and physiology, leaving for the second portion the remainder of the section on reproduction, and sections dealing respectively with inflorescence, flower, and pollination, fruit, seed, and germination, an ecological chapter, and one on phylogeny.

BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, &c.

A. B. R.

AT the meeting of the Linnean Society on 19th December, a paper by Dr. G. Archdall Reid "On Mendelism and Sex was read, of which the following is an abstract :-Species are adaptional forms which have arisen under the operation of Natural Selection. The evidence is plain that, speaking generally, variability is controlled and regulated by Natural Selection; therefore variability itself is, in a real sense, an adaptation. Nearly all variations are spontaneous, as is proved by a mass of evidence afforded by human beings; Natural Selection builds solely on spontaneous variations. When selection ceases as regards any character, that character tends to retrogress; therefore retrogressive variations tend to predominate over progressive variations. This tendency to retrogression is very useful and has played an immense part in adapting species to their environments. The author then touched upon blended and alternative inheritance; fluctuations and mutations; differences between Artificial and Natural Selection; and differences in the mode of reproduction of sexual and non-sexual

characters. The mode of reproduction of mutation tends to resemble that of sexual characters; when conjugation occurs there is an appearance of alternative inheritance as regards both sexual characters and mutations, but it is an appearance only. The evidence is plain that there is only alternative reproduction combined with latency of one alternative and patency of the other, and actual blending between the patent character of one individual and the latent character of the other, therefore blending is universal. This tendency, owing to the predominance and prepotency of retrogressive characters, tends to cause retrogression on cessation of selection, and this is the function of sex.

MR. A. B. JACKSON contributes to the Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club a paper on the Moss Flora of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Mr. Jackson considers that a good deal remains to be done before the Moss Flora can be regarded as thoroughly worked out, and observes that the New Forest, although a favourite ground for students of flowering plants, has never been systematically explored for mosses and hepatics. In the list given all previous records, including those of Mr. Dixon in this Journal for 1898, are included, and numerous additions are made. The number now recorded for the county is over 270.

THE last number of the Icones Plantarum contains as usual a large number of interesting novelties, mostly from China. Mr. Hemsley is, as usual, the principal contributor; he describes as a new genus, Sinofranchetia (Lardizabalaceae), a plant formerly referred to Holboellia, and figures and describes seven species (four new) of Stauntonia. It might perhaps have been mentioned under S. chinensis DC. (which dates from Syst. i. 514 (1818) not from Prodr. i. 96 (1824)) that the type was collected by Staunton and Macartney, whose specimens, as is frequently the case, are not definitely localized. Among Mr. Hemsley's other interesting new species are Sciaphila Clemensa, Altingia gracilipes, four species of Sycopsis, and Sabia gracilis; Cordeauxia edulis Hemsl. and Peglera capensis Bolus are figured and fully described.

It is most satisfactory to find that, though only four years have elapsed since the publication of Dr. Jost's Physiology (Vorlesungen uber Pflanzen Physiologie. Jena: Fischer), a second edition is already required. The new edition is similar to the old in size and general arrangement of contents; the only noteworthy change in the mode of subdivision of the subject consists in the linking together of "Stoff-und Energie-wechsel" in one (the first) part; and in describing movements - tropistic, nastic, &c. under the not altogether happy title of "Ortswechsel." The text has been carefully and critically revised, and accounts of the more fundamental recent researches-e. g., those of the Cambridge physiologists on Carbon-Assimilation-are added. The relegation of the lists of authors cited to the end of the volume is in our opinion a mistake, and we would suggest that in the third edition these lists should be once again placed at the ends of the chapters, and that, in addition, an alphabetical index of authors with subjects should be the general index.-—F. K.

THE LATE REV. W. R. LINTON.

(WITH PORTRAIT.)

WILLIAM RICHARDSON LINTON, who died at Shirley Vicarage on the 4th of January last, was born on the 2nd of April, 1850, at Diddington Vicarage, Hunts. He was the fifth son of the late Canon Linton, of Oxford and of Stirtloe House, Huntingdon, and named after his maternal grandfather, William Richardson, formerly vicar of Ferrybridge, Yorks. He was educated at Repton School, then under Dr. Pears, and rose to a high place in the sixth form. At Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which he entered in the October term, 1869, he gave himself mainly to classical studies, in which he had been well grounded at school. His diversions were kept within moderate bounds-on the river, where he won cups in 1870 and 1871 in the College Challenge Fours; on the running ground, where more than one prize for longdistance races fell to his share, and in the fives-court, a game at which he excelled. In the schools his devotion to work was rewarded with a Second Class in Moderations, a Second Class in the Final Classical School, and again a Second Class in the newly established School of Theology. These honours were followed by his carrying off the Denyer and Johnson Theological Scholarship in 1875, and subsequently the Hall and Houghton Senior Septuagint prize. In the study of Hebrew, taken up for two of these later examinations, he became, through long years of continued application, as proficient a scholar as in Greek or Latin.

So far Linton had taken no great interest in botany beyond accompanying his brother or the Rev. H. E. Fox (now Prebendary Fox) in rambles near Oxford or on holiday trips, and joining in their search for plants. In Natural Science his first interest was in geology, aroused by a long summer holiday spent at Whitby, and maintained in visits to the numerous oolite quarries around Oxford. A prize offered at school led to a collection of land and freshwater shells, which was continued for years, and added to in foreign travel.

In 1874 Linton was ordained by the Bishop of London to the curacy of St. Paul's, Upper Holloway, of which the Rev. F. J. Chavasse (now Bishop of Liverpool) was the vicar. The intellectual side of clerical life appealed to him more than the pastoral. His strength lay in the study and exposition of Divinity and all Biblical subjects, though in the more practical duties from which he would rather shrink he seems to have left his mark. The Bishop of Liverpool writing lately, after a lapse of thirty years, recalls his conscientiousness and his high sense of duty. disliked pastoral visitation, for naturally he was shy and reserved, though no man had a warmer heart and deeper sympathy. But though he disliked it he regularly paid his round of visits. Never had a man a more loyal and faithful colleague. His generosity was unbounded, his self-effacement was continuous, and he won the hearts of the people in the district by his unJOURNAL OF BOTANY.-VOL. 46. [MARCH, 1908.j

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