164 BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



is not accustomed to place much reliance, but they enable the novice 

 to find his plant, while he would close an ordinary manual in despair. 

 The authors have very sensibly omitted the Gramineae, the Cyper- 

 aceae, and the Juncaceae, families having little attraction for amateurs. 



The book begins with a sketch of the plant ecology of the Park, fol- 

 lowed by a short morphological summary explanatory of the organs' 

 of plants, the various forms of them, and definitions, rendered more 

 plain by figures, of the more important terms used in describing them. 

 The method of classification and the use of keys is thus explained. Only 

 sixteen page are occupied with these preliminaries, but so clear is the 

 style that a careful perusal will fit any intelligent reader for the use of 

 the keys and descriptions of the Flora. A glossary provides further 

 help, as also do the numerous text figures. 



The size of the book, 1\ by 4| inches, and the flexible leather binding 

 make it convenient to handle and easy to carry. The print is clear 

 and good, and the attractiveness of the volume is enhanced by the plates, 

 which are in part ecological, and in part plant portraits, The authors 

 are to be congratulated on their success in the accomplishment of a 

 difficult task, the preparation of a thoroughly satisfactory popular 

 Flora, and visitors to the Yosemite, or, for that matter, to the central 

 range of the Sierra Nevada, on the publication of a book wherewith 

 they may easily obtain an introduction to the plants about them.— 

 S. B. Parish. 



Chemical Phenomena in Life. — Hampered by a language not his 

 mother-tongue, limited by the compass of a small octavo volume, and 

 possessed of more than all the knowledge crowding a thousand and more 

 pages, the brilliant Professor of Plant Physiology at Prague has never- 

 theless given us in Chemical Phenomena in Life a masterly exposition 

 of the present status of biochemical thought and knowledge. 1 Czapek 

 is one of the most interesting figures in plant physiolog}' today, a man 

 of prodigious industry, as proved by his Biochemie der Pfianzen; of 

 fertile ideas, as shown by his own experimental work; and of synthetic 

 mind, as displayed in this small volume. Of sanguine temperament, 

 he sometimes accepts as proved what, in his own and others' work, lacks 

 confirmation: and yet is it not true that the real leaders in science, as 

 well as elsewhere, are those whose minds and souls are on fire and not 

 merely conservatively warm? Czapek's little book expounds, as well 



1 Czapek, Fr., Chemical Phenomena in Life. Pp. 152. New York: Harper 

 and Brothers, 1911. ($0.75.) 



