126 
greyish-green with an evident midrib sunk on the upper surface, 
and prominent beneath; petiole subterete, flattened above, very 
thinly hairy, or at length nearly glabrous. 
“First eight leaves radical, alternate, linear, obtuse, tapering at 
the base into the petiole, thinly silky with appressed pubescence, 
minutely and distantly toothed at the margin, greyish green, more 
or less distinctly marked near the margin with black dots, with a 
very distinct, colorless mid-rib, flattened above, thinly hairy at the 
margins, colorless. (Thirty-four days after germination.)” 
One of the striking features of the volumes to students 
especially interested in American plants, is the small number of 
North American species studied. Descriptions of seedlings of 
several garden vegetables are included. Among these, most 
prominent, perhaps, are the common radish (Raphanus sativus), 
common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris, tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) 
and pepper (Capsicum sp.). Seedlings of many cultivated orna- 
mental species are studied. Many of the species are rarely seen 
outside of Kew Gardens. 
The author uses the old term “radicle” as a name for the axis 
of the embryo while in the seed, but steadily applies the word 
“hypocotyl” to the same organ during germination. The be- 
ginnings of the root-system of the plant is scarcely touched upon, 
although the origin of the first roots have been shown by Holm 
(Mem. Torr. Bot. Club. Vol. ii. No. 3) to determine in a consid- 
erable measure the habit of the plant. 
The volumes are profusely illustrated with outline sketches. 
All will agree, I think, that more such books are needed. Itis — 
only when as careful researches are made upon the life-histories of 
seed producing plants, as cryptogamic botanists find themselves 
obliged to make upon the lower plants, that we shall discover how 
much yet remains to be done to complete our knowledge of the e 
Spermaphytes. There are many fields as inviting as was the one 
chosen by Sir John Lubbock. W. W. RowL_Lee. 
On the Simplest Form of Moss. Karl Goebel. (Ann. Bot. vi. 
355-360, Plate XXII. 1892). . . 
The author considers Buxbaumia an almost ideally simple 
moss, because the sexual organs are borne almost directly on the © 
_ protonema, in this approaching the ferns. The protonema is said 
