THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 133 



The appearance of a lalxiratory Manual in holanx 1)\- 

 Transeau and Sampson revives interest in the senior author > 

 text in "General llotanv" first issued in 1923. This latter 

 l)ook is an introductory course designed for use in collej^es 

 and the more advanced secondary sch(K)ls. That it is intended 

 to cover the entire field may he inferred when it is known 

 that it contains fifty chapters and runs to more than ?.->(> 

 pages. As is usual in hooks of this kind the early chai)ters 

 are concerned with the anatomy and physiology of \ascular 

 plants with later ones on the lower forms of life, evolution. 

 classification, and kindred matters. The work has a strong 

 ecological trend as might he expected of an author i^f Dr. 

 Transeau's predilections, hut this trend is in accordance with 

 modern ideas. The work lias a vast amount of information 

 not ordinarily found in the text-hooks though this compre- 

 hensiveness may at limes prove a stumhling-hlock tt. the he- 

 ginner who often finds it difficult to distinguish the essentials 

 from less important facts. There are more than o3() illustra- 

 tions manv of which feature ecological conchtions that arc 

 still somewhat unfamiliar to the student. In the opinion of 

 the reviewer, .the Manual fails to e(|ual the text in value. 

 There are too manv experiments "to show" \arious things, 

 rather than to discover the facts. It must l)e admitted, how- 

 ever, that the exercises co\er a wide range of piienomena. 

 and that anvl)od\' who works through them all will he well 

 grounded in the essentials of the suhject. Although designed 

 to accompany the Transeau text the Manual may he used 

 separatelv if desired, since it is concerned with the things 

 that all heginners need to know. The price of tlie text-hook 

 is $4.00 and that of the Manual $1.20. Both are puhli.shed 

 hv the World Rook Companv, ^'onkers. X. ^'., the text fonn- 

 ing one of the \ ohunes in the "New \\ Orld Science Serie.-." 



