Botanical Illustrations Research Articles

(1) Botany for Students of Medicine and Pharmacy (2) Junior Botany (3) The Elements of Vegetable Histology

(1) Prof. Fritch and Dr. Salisbury have prepared an elementary text-book, which is stated in the preface to be for the use of students of medicine and pharmacy. A large number of new figures of plant structures are produced, and many of them will form a useful addition to botanical illustration. A few, however, such as Figs. 69 and 71, are too diagrammatic, sketchy, or ragged to be desirable for elementary. students, and of course they are of no use for any other purpose. The book begins with the plant as a whole, using the Shepherd's-purse as type. It goes on with several chapters on the various plant organs and their functions. The chapter on plant cells concludes with an account of protoplasm in colloidal terms. Growing points, tissues, cell contents, and the structure of roots, stems, and leaves are then carefully treated, followed by physiology and the study of types. The book ends with a chapter on heredity and evolu tion, and an appendix dealing with reagents and methods. It covers adequately the syllabus for medical students and is one of the best we have seen for this purpose, but it is questionable if a somewhat more biological and scientifically imaginative treatment of the subject would not be to the advantage of elementary botanical teaching. (1) Botany for Students of Medicine and Pharmacy. By Prof. F. E. Fritch Dr. E. J. Salisbury. Pp. xiv + 357. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1921.) 10s. 6d. net. (2) Junior Botany. By T. W. Woodhead. Pp. 210. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.) 3s. 6d. net. (3) The Elements of Vegetable Histology. By Prof. C. W. Ballard. Pp. xiv + 246. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1921.) 18s. net.

Dr. William Carruthers, F.R.S

DR. WILLIAM CARRUTHERS, who died on June 2 at the age of ninety-two years, was a familiar figure in the botanical world in the latter half of the last century. He was born at Moffat, Dumfries, in 1830, and educated at Edinburgh with the view of entering the Presbyterian ministry, but decided in favour of a scientific career. In 1859 he was appointed assistant in the Department of Botany of the British Museum to J. J. Bennett, who had recently succeeded Robert Brown as Keeper of the department. In 1871 Dr. Carruthers followed Bennett in the Keepership, which he held until his retirement in 1895. His tenure of office was marked by a great development of the department. The removal of the natural history collections to the new museum in the Cromwell Road in 1881 afforded a unique opportunity for improvement and expansion; and the arrangement and equipment of the suite of galleries assigned to botany, including the great herbarium and the excellent botanical library, approached through a fine exhibition gallery, are a lasting memorial of Dr. Carruthers's knowledge and skill. The development of the Cryptogamic Herbarium, with the help of Mr. George Murray, and of the special British Herbarium, based on the collection of his chief assistant, Dr. Henry Trimen, the arrangement of the valuable collection of original botanical drawings and manuscripts, the planning of the exhibition galleries, and the initiation of a series of botanical monographs, such as Crombie's Enumeration of the British Lichens and Lister's Monograph of the Mycelozoa, may be recalled as incidents of his tenure. A fuller appreciation of these activities by another colleague, Mr. James Britten, will be found in the Journal of Botany, 1895.

Sir Arthur Church's Collection of Botanical Drawings

Sir Arthur Church's Collection of Botanical Drawings

Illustrations of the Botany of Captain Cook's Voyage Round the World in HMS “Endeavour” in 1768–71

“BETTER late than never” may be said of the book the title of which is given above. It is a curious fact that the scientific results of several of the most important and most costly voyages of discovery, both English and foreign, have either not been published at all, or only in part, and in a fragmentary manner. Cook's first voyage is, perhaps, the most notable example of unfinished works of this kind in the history of British exploration. This is the more to be deplored, because collecting and methodical investigation were carried out on a scale previously unknown, and an immense sum was subsequently expended by Sir Joseph Banks in preparing the botanical results for publication. This is not the place to enter into the causes of the cessation of this part of the work; but it was not the only part that was long belated. It was not till 1893 that Captain Cook's own “Journal” was published, edited by Sir William Wharton; and three years later appeared Banks's “Journal” of that memorable voyage, edited by Sir Joseph Hooker. Although I have said “better late than never,” it is obvious that the illustrations now in course of being issued have been, to some extent, forestalled, and the letterpress is historically interesting, rather than a contribution to science. According to the prospectus the complete work will comprise 800 plates; these will include a series illustrating the botanical collections of Cook's second voyage, when the Forsters, father and son, were the naturalists. Sydney Parkinson was the botanical artist on the first voyage, but he and the two other artists all died on the voyage, and their work was left in an unfinished condition. So much has been written about the plates now being issued and the desirability of their publication, that something superior to what they really are was probably expected by most people. Indeed it is difficult to suppress a feeling of disappointment. Compared with the botanical illustrations of other expeditions of discovery of a little later date, they are hard and unattractive, and floral dissections are almost entirely wanting. They lose, too, in effect, as they are transfers and not direct impressions of the original engravings on copper. The majority of the plates were engraved from drawings by F. P. Nodder, prepared from Parkinson's sketches and the dried specimens, and only the former name appears on the plates. Our remarks on this point, however, should be regarded in the light of explanation rather than criticism, because after all we must not forget that their publication has been delayed more than a century. Of course, it is highly regrettable that they were not published at the time, so that they might have been more fully utilised in the many publications that have appeared during the last century and a quarter on Australasian and Pacific Islands botany. A fact of great importance is that a comparatively small number of the plants here depicted had previously been figured. Mr. Britten has most conscientiously reproduced Solander's descriptions and remarks, even to the extent of palpable errors. Thus the locality Endeavour River is given throughout as Endeavour's River, and “petioli ½-uncialia,” instead of unciales. But perhaps this course is more satisfactory than any attempt at improving the original; and errors of the latter kind may be due to slips of the transcriber. The keenest reader may overlook false terminations in Latin descriptions, and the most ready writer is apt to make them. Illustrations of the Botany of Captain Cook's Voyage Round the World in H.M.S. “Endeavour” in 1768–71. By the Hon. Sir Joseph Banks Dr. Daniel Solander with Determinations by James Britten Part I: Australian Plants. 101 Plates, with descriptive letterpress. (London: Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum. All Booksellers. 1900.)

Hooker's “Icones Plantarum”

THE recent issue of the fourth part of vol. xx. of the entire work completes the volume, and closes the third series, with a total of two thousand plates. This useful, and now indispensable, publication was cormmenced by the late Sir William Hooker in 1837, and the first volume was dedicated to the late George Bentham, who is described in the dedication as an “ardent promoter, not less by his patronage than by his writings, of botany and horticulture.” Sir William Hooker started the “Icones” to illustrate some of the numerous novelties in the collections which were pouring into his herbarium from various parts of the world, especially from the southern hemisphere, at that period. With a few exceptions by Harvey, Gardner, and others, the drawings and descriptions were by Hooker himself, and a volume, containing one hundred plates, appeared annually, or nearly so. The first series closed with the fourth volume in 1841. At this date the founder was already Director of Kew Gardens, and he continued the work to the tenth volume, which terminated the second series. Two or three of the later volumes of this series were illustrated by the then rising botanical artist, W. H. Fitch. In the tenth volume we find a dedication of the whole ten volumes to George Bentham, in much the same words as the first. This was in 1854. After an interval of thirteen years, the third series was commenced, under the editorship of Dr. J. D. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker; and G. Bentham, D. Oliver, and J. G. Baker were contributors. Mr. Bentham, we believe, financed the undertaking. This, the eleventh volume, was not completed until 1871; but it is a most interesting volume, illustrated by Fitch, and containing among other things many of the endemic plants of St. Helena. The second volume of this series, the twelfth of the whole, was also illustrated by Fitch, and is valuable for the figures of curious new genera founded by Bentham and Hooker when elaborating their “Genera Plantarurn.”

Familiar Wild Flowers

THERE has certainly been a wonderful improvement of late years in the art of chromo-lithography as applied to botanical illustrations; and the specimens in the work before us are among the best that we have seen. The colouring, the outline drawing, and the general representation of habit, are all remarkably true to nature. The floral initial letters and tail-pieces, which are stated to be drawn “by various artists,” are not so uniformly successful. Each part, published at the remarkably low price of sixpence, contains two coloured plates, more than one species being occasionally placed on a plate. The accompanying letter-press descriptions, though rather shorter than would in many cases be desirable, are written in plain and easy and not too technical language. There is no indication of the proportion of the British flora intended to be included under the designation of “familiar wild flowers;”but whenever the volume is completed, it will be a useful addition to our popular botanical literature, and well calculated to promote an accurate knowledge of the common plants of our fields and hedges.