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has just appeared (January, 1901) from the publishing house of Eduard Kuni- 

 mer, Leipzig.* Dr. Schliephacke, first a pupil and then a life-long friend of the 

 author, has written the preface, a bibliographical sketch, and, with the aid of Dr. 

 Geheeb, has directed the publication of this posthumous work, which comprises 

 474 pages. In spite of its unfinished condition (it lacks the Orthotrichaceae of 

 the Acrocarpi, and all the Pleurocarpi ), it is a work which, by reason of its inde- 

 pendent treatment of genera as plant groups, will enlist the lively interest of all 

 botanists interested in the principles of system. 



The author has been a most diligent worker for over si.xty years, and has 

 during all this time been an active student of the mosses of all continents; has 

 described not hundreds, but literally thousands of species, not as a hasty, selfish 

 species-monger, but as a master with an acumen and comprehension developed 

 in a life-long devotion to these humble yet beautiful organisms. Think of him, 

 writing in his eightieth year to a friend: "The joy to live for Bryology I am feel- 

 ing in its full glory, though for the moment it has made me quite ill !" He had 

 examined a collection of antarctic mosses, and had determined nearly 250 new 

 species in it, and that only a few months before his death! 



It is the comprehension of systematic and morphological relations, devel- 

 oped and tempered by much industry and long devotion, that the author has 

 brought to bear upon the monumental work before us, monumental, even 

 though it is incomplete. In the preface it is rightly characterized as the " testa- 

 ment of his bryological knowledge." From his commanding view-point, then, 

 he discusses the systematic relations of genera. To quote his own words from 

 page 8, where he reviews the Cleistocarpi, dwarfs among mosses: " That we 

 have the right to consider them, on account of their diminutive size and simplic- 

 ity, as those mosses with which we must begin the system, as some would have 

 it, I doubt. Since in many families of plants, dwarfs occur by the side of giants, 

 as for instance among the ferns in the case of species of Hymenophyllum and 

 Cyathea, without permitting the former to be ranked as lower, just so here. 

 There exists within one and the same family no ascending development; all 

 forms are co-ordinate; and it is we ourselves that bring a system to their study 

 in order to make possible a comprehensive view; and therefore all disputing 

 about systems is barren. For the present at least, where only the very smallest 

 part of the organic world lies revealed before us, we are unable to determine 

 how the denizens of the plant world will finally marshall themselves in orderly 

 array." 



But the author dwells not only on the distinguishing characters of "groups" 

 and genera; he does this with a skill and care very satisfying to the systematist, 

 and a great deal more: he takes up the historical development and the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the species under the genera. And both style and mat- 

 ter of these discussions is such that every page of the volume, though dealing 

 with abstruse scientific data, takes on the charm of a story dealing with matters 



♦Genera Muscorum Frondosorum. Classes Schistocarponim.Cleistocarporuni, Stegocarporuni 

 completentia, e.xceptis Orthotrichaceis et Pleurocarpis. by Dr. Carl Mueller Hallensis, with a 

 preface by Dr. Karl Schliephacke. I.eipzig. Vorlag von Eduard Kuninier, 1901. Price 12 M. 

 =12.50. 



