NOTES AND NEWS. 71 



On October first, while collecting near Hempstead. Long Island, 

 I found the Stagger Bush [Pieris Mariana) in full bloom. It is a 

 common shrub along the roadsides skirting the barrens, and was 

 blooming as abundantly as in early summer. In many cases the fruit 

 of the early year and the nodding umbels of the late season appeared 

 upon the same branch. — Will R. Maxon, Nezv York City. 



A writer in a recent issue of the Botanical Gazette gives an enter- 

 taining account of the DeCandoUes, that illustrious family of botanists 

 whose name has been for nearly a century familiar to scientists on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. The pioneer was M. Augustin-Pyrame 

 DcCandolle, who founded the botanical gardens and herbarium at 

 Geneva, and who also initiated the stupendous descriptive work known 

 as the Prodroiims. His son, M. Alphonse DeCandoUe, was a worthy 

 successor, and some of the most valuable memoirs in the P rodromus 

 were prepared by him or under his direction. The distinguished rep- 

 resentative of the third generation, M. Casimir DeCandoUe, is now 

 living, and has developed the herbarium and library to a wonderful 

 extent, entirely at his own expense. Among systematists he is es- 

 pecially known for his researches in the Piperacecs. His son, M. 

 Augustin DeCandoUe, while yet a young man, gives every indication 

 that the fourth generation of this remarkable family will maintain its 

 reputation among botanists of the first rank. 



. . . BO OK REVIE WS . . . 



Elementary Botany. By George F. Atkinson, New York: Henry 

 Holt & Co., 1898. Octavo, pp. 1-444. Price $1.25 for introduc- 

 tion. 



Recent years have witnessed the production of numerous text- 

 books on botany along the lines of elementary instruction, some of 

 which are good, some of no particular merit, and others, but fortu- 

 nately few, that are positively bad. Professor Atkinson's book does 

 not belong to either of these categories, but in the opinion of the re- 

 viewer stands in a class by itself which is marked by very superior 

 excellence. It is perhaps not too much to say that it is the best book 

 of its scope that has been thus far produced in this country. It is 

 filled with a wealth of well selected material; it is logical in its arrange- 

 ment; it is accurate and fully abreast of the times as to its facts, and 

 above all it is a readable book. 



The book is divided into three parts, dealing with physiology, 

 morphology and ecology. The first chapter naturally begins with 

 protoplasm., and its demonstration in the lower and higher plants. 



