Flowers, and Their Unbidden Guests. By Dr. A. Kerner. The
translation revised and edited by W. Ogle, M.A., M.D. (C. Kegan Flowers, and Their Unbidden Guests. By Dr. A. Kerner. The translation revised and edited by W. Ogle, M.A., M.D. (C. Kegan Paul and Co.)—It requires some knowledge of botany fully to appre- ciate this book, but it will have an interest for the unscientific reader. It is an account of the multiform devices by which flowers secure themselves against unwelcome as well as invite welcome visitants among the insect tribes. Visitants are welcome or unwelcome, ac- cording as they are or are not fitted to promote the fertilisation of the plant. The editor tells us in his preface that he had observed the use of the rings of viscous matter in the Lychnis viscaria, that they hindered the ants from ascending the stalk and rifling the flower of the nectar which was wanted to attract insects that would be serviceable in the reproduction of the plant. These rings were repeated on the stalk. The lower repelled invaders from the ground,
the higher those that might attempt to enter the fortress by using other
plants as scaling-ladders. This is curious enough, but how much more curious the suggestion that the plant, as it increases in intelli- gence, may content itself with the uppermost ring. While Dr. Ogle was waiting for time to extend his observations, there appeared this treatise of Dr. Kerner, dealing with the whole subject so fully, that he wisely determined to give the English reader the benefit of its record of marvellously wide and careful observations. The book is full of strange facts, of which it is difficult to say' whether one is more marvellous than the others. One water-plant, commonly protected from attack by the element by which it is surrounded, should the water by any means dry up, begins immediately to put out other defences. This is only an instance selected at random out of the multitude which this most interesting book supplies. Should not " chitinous " (p. 17) be " chitonous ?"
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