126 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



United States," published by the American Book Company. 

 This is a real botanical manual of the shrubs with numerous 

 keys such as are found in other manuals, accurate descriptions 

 and a profusion of illustrations but with little, if any, "popu- 

 lar" information. The descriptions, it may be added, are as 

 untechnical as possible in a work of the kind. Common 

 names are freely used and the methods usual in propagating 

 each species are noted. The shrubs are arranged according to 

 modern ideas of sequence and thus the treatment corresponds 

 to that in current botanical manuals, yet we find many familiar 

 families of the flower manual lacking because there are no 

 shrubs in them, while, the names of various new families and 

 genera call attention to the differences that must exist in the 

 flora of lands having approximately the same climate. With 

 this book in hand a walk in the parks of a great city will have 

 much of the interest and zest that a ramble in the country has 

 for the plant lover. 



There seems to be no end to the botanical text-books de- 

 signed for use in high school or college. In most of these 

 there is little that is unique, the authors apparently depending 

 for consideration upon their method of treating the subject. 

 One of the latest of these is "Botany for High Schools," by 

 Geo. F. Atkinson issued by Henry Holt and Company. The 

 book follows the general run in being divided into two parts 

 the first being devoted to the structure and physiology of 

 flowering plants and the second to the spore-plants. In the 

 latter some variations in the arrangement of the thallophytes 

 are noted, the conjugating algae coming before the one-celled 

 green algae and the blue-green forms following the green. In 

 ■tlhis part also is noted an inclination toward the study of 

 "types" with but a slender thread of evolution connecting 

 them. In thus presenting the subject the author is in good 

 company, for practically all books written by College men take 



