and leaf are for the most part worked out, but whose bodies are weak from lack of a supporting woody framework. The third division includes the first of “vertebrated” plants, the “Pteridophytes,” where belong not merely the ferns, but the scouring rushes, the club-mosses, and certain groups that do not come within the common experience, but are of vast interest to the botanist. Pteridophytes have a woody framework and may attain tree-like proportions, but their spores are early separated from the parent, in a sort of oviparous fashion. The fourth and fifth divisions have been commonly kept together, as representing the great group of seed-producing plants, called “Phanerogams,” and commonly “flowering plants.” Flowers are not peculiar to them, however, as Pteridophytes also produce true flowers; but the habit of retaining the spore on the parent during its germination, resulting in the structure known as the seed, a kind of viviparous habit, is peculiar to the group. Dr. Warming finds in the old group Phanerogams sufficient diversity to raise its two usual subdivisions to the rank of main divisions, and hence “Gymnosperms,” including Conifers and Cycads, become the fourth grand division, and “Angiosperms,” the true flowering plants, the fifth and highest. It has long been known that the Gymnosperms are more closely related to the Pteridophytes than to the Angiosperms, and the present arrangement but emphasizes this fact. It is very curious that in certain manuals still current the Gymnosperms are placed in the very midst of the Angiosperms. To one familiar with the ordinary school manuals the arrangement of the families of Angiosperms. To one familiar with the ordinary school manuals the arrangement of the families of Angiosperms would seem very strange, but it is just at this point that recent research appears, and, as a consequence, the old artificial grouping disappears. It is very evident that the old systematic botany, with its sets of pigeon-holes and its search for plant names, has been set aside, and that the new systematic botany deals with genetic relationships.
One of the notable books of the year is Dr. Vines’s “Text-Book of Botany.” Ever since his admirable work on Plant Physiology, Dr. Vines has been recognized that he had a general text-book in preparation created such a demand for it that the first part of the volume was issued separately in 1894, and was followed by the remaining part in 1895. The whole presents the most complete and compact view of modern botany yet published. The notable feature of the book is that it presents a consistent terminology throughout, and that homologies are not disguised by a variable set of terms. As one approaches the higher plants from a study of the lower, he has been confronted by a morphology bred of antiquated ideas that has been confusing and misleading. It may come as a shock that “stamens” and “pistils” are not “male” and “female” organs, and that our whole conception of a “flower” was radically wrong, but it is just as well to have the truth presented. It would be impossible to present the details of such a book, and it can only be said that it binds the whole plant kingdom together in one consistent scheme. It is interesting to note Dr. Vines’s great divisions of the subject of Botany. The book is divided into four parts, entitled (1) Morphology (2) The Intimate Structure of the Plants, (3) The Classification of Plants, (4) Physiology. There can be no question that morphology and physiology are two very distinct and fundamental divisions of the subject, and that classification (better taxonomy) is a sort of cap-sheaf for all departments; but anatomy and histology should be considered more as a means to an end than a great division by itself. It enters essentially into all work, but can hardly be said to have any worthy autonomy. The compound microscope is also essential in most work, but it is hardly worth while to have a division of “microscopy.” The recognition of anatomy as an end, however, is not so surprising as the failure to recognize the great department of œcology. In one sense it may be included under physiology, but hardly more so than morphology could be included under taxonomy. This book will do more than bring to the beginning student the science of botany based upon the most recent morphology; it will also go far towards bringing about that uniform terminology which was a crying need of botany.
A most fascinating book, not only for the botanist but for the general reader also, is Mr. Oliver’s translation of Kerner’s “Natural History of Plants.” There are to be five parts, two of which are before us. The work is copiously and beautifully illustrated, and deals in popular style, but with scientific accuracy, with some of the most interesting problems in the life of plants. It is a pity that the translator does not give even a brief preface explanatory of the status of the work and its purpose. Several colored illustrations supplement the numerous original woodcuts. Professor Kerner has done what more botanists should do: he had brought the most recent researches within reach of the intelligent reader, and in a style so charming that even the professional teacher may learn a lesson in the art of presentation. In the two volumes before us the general subjects presented are: “the living principle of plants,” a discussion of the fascinating problem of protoplasm and its activities; “absorption of nutriment,” taking up the various sources of supply, which leads into such questions as parasitism, symbiosis, etc.; “conduction of food,” where those who think they know something about the “ascent of sap” may find something to learn; “formation of organic food,” the story of the conversion of the mineral into the organic; “metabolism and transport of materials,” under which is described the inner activities of the plant; “growth and construction of plants”; and “plant-forms as completed structures.” The two parts contain nearly 800 pages, but the subjects of reproduction and distribution, to be considered in the remaining parts, are capable of still greater interest in presentation. It
