xii SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



previous translations are so well known, and the work which for years has appeared under his 

 direction in the Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. at Harvard College has become so famous for the 

 thoroughness of its bibliographical department, that the success of the present venture seemed 

 assured in his hands. 



The original is certainly the best general treatise on Embryology which has appeared 

 since Balfour's, if indeed it is not in some respects preferable to that. With respect to 

 the share taken by the translators in bringing it up to date, comparison arises with 

 the senior translator's rendering of Hertwig's Text-book of Embryology, in which a 

 similar resolve was made but very inefficiently carried out. Not so here ; and in the 

 selection of new matter, a wise discretion has been exercised in the presentation of novelties to 

 the student mind, to wit, in the treatment of those observations tending towards the overthrow 

 of the germ-layer theory. We note that clue regard has been paid to the various modes of 

 asexual reproduction and regeneration, a feature not always met with in works on Embryo- 

 logy ; but, conversely, we regret that Chun's Dissogonie has not received the attention it 

 deserves in the Chapter on the Ctenophora. And it is a distinctly healthy sign to read in a 

 text-book of pure Embryology, apropos of Semon's " Pentactula " stage in Echinoderm develop- 

 ment and a discussion of its possible bearings on Phylogany, that it seems " more justifiable to 

 search for the ancestral forms of the Echinodermata among the existing material which is 

 offered us by Palaeontology ". 



Of the success of the translation and of the future of the book there can be no doubt. It 

 is clear in style and in get up. All has been done with a due sense of proportion, and the few 

 errors we have detected are such as will be self-evident to the intelligent reader. We can 

 confidently recommend the work as the most generally serviceable on the subject in the 

 English tongue. 



The translators remark in their preface that they have been " compelled by the pressure 

 of other duties to relinquish to others the task " of translation of the two remaining parts of 

 the work. In this they have become notorious, for, loyal to an earlier suggestion of the senior 

 translator, they have rendered "anlage" as "fundament"! The publishers announce that 

 the translation will be continued by Dr. H. J. Campbell, a gentleman who has served them 

 in a similar capacity on more than one occasion. We would remind him that in respect to the 

 general translation here set before him he has an example which he may well emulate, and 

 express the hope that in the interests of English he will not allow the afore-mentioned extra- 

 ordinary misuse of so commonplace a word to continue. 



Introduction to the Study of Fungi, their Organography, Classification, and Distribution for 

 the use of Collectors. By M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D. , A. L.S. London: Adam & 

 Charles Black. 



Perhaps there is no group of plants more bewildering to the beginner than that of the 

 Fungi. The number of known species is enormous, probably more than 40,000, and the 

 frequent occurrence of polymorphism serves considerably to complicate the task of under- 

 standing their mutual relationships. Most of the existing text- and hand-books, even though 

 estimable enough in their way, only produce a feeling of discouragement in the mind of the 

 student, since they practically presuppose a degree of acquaintance with the general forms of 

 the plants such as the reader in most cases does not possess. Hence he has either to greatly 

 extend the scope of his reading by referring to original papers and figures, or, too commonly, 

 he is contented with merely "getting up" special facts about an organism of whose general 

 character he does not possess the remotest idea. 



The great merit of Dr. Cooke*s book lies in the fact that it contains a good deal of 

 description of entire plants. Probably no one possesses a more extensive knowledge of the 

 external characters of Fungi than the author, and his account is frequently enlivened with 

 interesting details of habit and mode of life. He divides the work up into three main sections, 

 Organography, Classification, and Distribution, and in an appendix gives useful hints as to 

 collecting and preserving specimens. 



The subject of Organography is dealt with rather from the standpoint of the systematist 

 than from that of the comparative morphologist, and although this method of treatment is of 

 necessity somewhat formal the student will find that it possesses practical advantages of its 

 own, inasmuch as it provides a useful key with which to unlock the vast storehouse of facts 

 buried in the more purely systematic treatises. Naturally, there are several points on which 

 there will be differences of opinion between the author and his readers, and the records of 

 certain alleged observations whose accuracy has never been admitted by persons most qualified 

 to judge, might well have been omitted. Probably, too, many will dissent from the author's 



