64 THE PLANT WORLD. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



Lessons in Botany. By George F. Atkinson. New York: Henry 



Holt & Co., 1900. 



This is an abbreviated and simplified edition of the author's Ele- 

 mentary Botany, prepared for the use of the pupils in the secondary 

 schools, when short, or half-year, courses in botany are given, and 

 when for one reason or another the larger book cannot be adopted to 

 such shorter courses. It has been in large part re-written and will be 

 found admirably adapted to the schools for which it is designed. The 

 larger work is one of the very best of its kind, and we predict that 

 the present abbreviated edition will be found equally valuable and 

 useful.— F. H. K. 



The Nature and Work of Plants. An introduction to the study 

 of Botany. By D. T. MacDougal. New York: The Macmillan 

 Company. 80 cents. 



Dr. MacDougal is too well known as a leader among American 

 plant-physiologists to need a special introduction, and this book is 

 bound not only to be received as a valuable addition to the list of ele- 

 mentary text-books, but as a satisfactory exposition of present knowl- 

 edge along the lines it covers. We have become so accustomed in re- 

 cent years to having all text-books on botany more or less fully illus- 

 trated, that it comes as a shock to open this little book and find that 

 there is not a single picture in it. Perhaps we have been depending 

 too much on illustrations, yet it is doubtful if their complete and 

 and studied absence will meet with general approval. Even a few 

 carefully selected figures would certainly add to the clearness and ease 

 with which it could be used. The book is divided into ten chapters, 

 of which we have only space to give the headings as follows: Com- 

 position and purposes of plants; Material of which plants are made 

 up; Manner in which different kinds of work are divided among the 

 meml)ers of the l)ody; Roots; Leaves; Stems; The way in which new 

 plants arise; Seeds and fruits; Power or energy of the plant; Rela- 

 tions of plants to each other, and the place in which they live. Each 

 chapter is divided into numbered and separately headed paragraphs, 

 and the language is extremely clear and graphic. We shall watch with 

 interest the reception of this book by the practical teachers. — F. H. K, 



