THE PLANT WORLD 99 



Botanists are not responsible for the variations of plants in nature, 

 and if the differences are recognizable there can be no valid objection 

 to their being named. We can only urge that haste be made slowly in 

 this " splitting " process, and only after the most careful study and com- 

 parison of large series of specimens. It must be very discouraging to 

 the layman and amateur to find the one or two species of a genus with 

 which he supposed himself familiar, suddenly split up into a dozen or 

 twenty- named species. One undoubtedly good effect will be to direct 

 careful attention and study to the groups that have been divided. Much 

 of this work, perhaps most of it, may stand the test of time, but some of 

 it is already repudiated, and it would be well to recall the absurdities 

 that have been foisted on the public by certain European writers in the 

 shape of segregates from Draha venia, and in the vast multiplication of 

 species in Ruhus, Rosa and Hieraciam, 



Book Review. 



The Miceoscope and its Revelations, By the late Wm. B, Carpenter, 

 Eighth edition, enlarged and revised by the Rev. W. H. Dallinger. 

 8vo., 1181 pp,, 22 plates, and nearly 900 wood engravings, P, 

 Blakiston's Sons & Co,, Philadelphia, Pa., 1901, 



In the last revised edition of this classic work we have what might 

 be termed an encyclopedia of microscopy, as there is scarcely a subject 

 to which the microscope bears direct relation concerning which one can- 

 not find information in this volume. The time has long since passed 

 when the microscope was regarded as an instrument whose chief use 

 was to pronde innocent amusement for amateur microscopists. It is 

 now an indispensable accessory in numerous lines of scientific research, 

 as well as industrial and economic pursuits. Our readers will be more 

 particularly^ interested in the portion of the work devoted to the micro- 

 scopic structure of the vegetable kingdom, included in pages 530 to 725. 

 A more or less complete outline is here given of the various groups of 

 plants, particular attention, of course, being given to the lower and sim- 

 pler forms. The illustrations are numerous and excellent. The treat- 

 ment does not include some of the most recent knowledge regarding 

 some of these forms, but is mostly accurate. C. L. S. 



