136 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



guage and is well illustrated by diagrams and charts. Here the 

 beginner will find explained such matters as Mendel's law. 

 mutation, linkage, bud variation, sex determination, the inher- 

 itance of acquired characteristics and many related matters. 

 The limiting of the subject to a consideration of plant genetics 

 is to ha commended since the problems presented are rather 

 more easily explained by instances taken from the plant world 

 than from the world of animals. All students of plant and 

 animal breeding cannot fail to find the book of absorbing 

 intere.'^t. Its price is $1.50. 



Bonfires no longer blaze upon the hills as the sun reaches 

 its solstitial splendr)r ; the worship of Baalvhas passed; and 

 in a Protestant country the feast of St. John awakens little 

 emotion. But religious faith of whatever nature has a per- 

 sistent ^•itality ; there are superstitious fibers enwrought in 

 every soul; and as long as St. John's-wort gilds the roadsides 

 and pastures with its pale gold — far away reflections of the 

 long extinct fires of the \ igil of St. John — so long will 

 flourish tlie curious beliefs clustering about the plant blessed 

 by the Baptist and preserving memories of still older festi- 

 vals of the midsummer. — Martha B. Flint. 



