35 6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and the conduct of business thereat. The investment of hospital funds (pp. 12 1-3), 



and the acquisition and sale of lands by hospitals (pp. 124-38) form the subject 



of two other useful chapters. 



It is hoped that this short summary may show in some measure that Mr. Murray's 



book contains information which should render it invaluable to all those interested 



in the legal and economic aspect of our hospitals. 



H. Beezley. 



Systematic Anatomy of the Dicotyledons: A Handbook for Laboratories 

 of Pure and Applied Botany. By Dr. Hans Solereder. Translated 

 by L. A. Boodle, F.L.S., and F. E. Fritsch, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.L.S. Re- 

 vised by D. H. Scott, M.A., LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. Vol. I., Introduction, 

 Polypetalae, Gamopetake. With 153 figures in the Text. Oxford: At the 

 Clarendon Press, 1908 ; price 24s. net. 



The appearance of a translation of Solereder's great work on the anatomy of the 

 Dicotyledons is to be regarded as one of the most noteworthy events in recent 

 English botanical literature. The book forms one of the remarkable series of 

 foreign classics, done into English and published by the Oxford University Press, 

 which the younger generation of English-speaking botanists have come to regard 

 as among their greatest guides, philosophers, and friends. And no fault will be 

 found if yet another opportunity be taken of recording the debt of gratitude which 

 they and all botanists owe to the Clarendon Press for rendering so ready of access 

 the masterpieces of German work. 



It is fitting that the work of the revision and translation of one of the greatest 

 examples of foreign anatomical work should have been delegated to the group of 

 men mentioned in the title-page quoted above. One of the most notable features 

 of the growth of British Botany during the last one or two decades has been the 

 large amount of attention paid to anatomy— more especially that branch of it 

 dealing with the vascular system — by what has come to be recognised as a definite 

 British school of anatomists. Prominent in this school are the botanists to whom 

 the present volume is due, and the association of the names of Dr. Scott, Mr. Boodle, 

 and Dr. Fritsch with this work is an all-sufficient guarantee that both the spirit and 

 the letter of Professor Solereder's masterpiece have been rendered the fullest 

 justice of which English botany and the English language are capable. 



The intention and scope of Solereder's Systematische Anatomie der Dicotyle- 

 donen is well known to botanists, but the work is of that specialised character 

 which would render it practically unknown to laymen. For this reason it has been 

 thought desirable to refer at some length to the circumstances which rendered the 

 appearance of such a work a desideratum. It may be said that practically the 

 whole of the efforts of early botanical science were directed towards the naming, 

 identification, and recording the descriptions of the plants which at that time were 

 pouring into the European herbaria from travellers and collectors in all parts of the 

 world ; and of allotting to the plants received a place in the scheme of classification 

 which, for the time being, was generally held to be the most satisfactory. It must 

 even be admitted that the earlier schemes of classification aimed not so much at 

 establishing the natural relationships of plants, as at affording a convenient series 

 of compartments into which newly named and described plants could be laid. 

 At this period comparatively little attention was paid to internal anatomy, nor, 

 in the absence of reliable nomenclature, would work in this direction have had 

 much scientific value. But, with the growth of such a knowledge, a mass of 

 anatomical observations gradually came into being, and the first period may be 



