BOOKS AND WRITERS. 



The appearance of Bergen and Davis" "Laboratory and 

 .Field Manual of Botany" Calls attention anew to the 

 excellent series of botanical text books of which it is a part. In 

 the opinion of the reviewer the Bergen texts as they are fre- 

 quently called, are the very best and most practical books for 

 use in high schools that can be found. The present manual is a 

 laboratory guide for use in connection with Bergen and Davis' 

 "Principles of Botany" issued last year. Both books are de- 

 signed to cover a year's work and of course follow the modern 

 sequence which begins with the seed and runs through the 

 structure of flowering plants in the first half year and mainly 

 discusses the spore-plants in the second. Very little adverse 

 criticism can be made of the "Principles of Botany." Its treat- 

 ment of the subject is up to date and it is the only one of the 

 Bergen books that is strictly a text and not partly a laboratory 

 guide. Ecology is treated as a separate branch of botany but 

 in the judgment of the reviewer should be blended with struc- 

 ture, physiology, etc., in a work like this. The new "Labora- 

 tory Manual" may appear to many to attempt too much. It is 

 at once a book for use in a half-year or a year's course in the 

 high school and a manual for normal schools and colleges. 

 Such a volume may be confusing- to any class without an un- 

 usually efficient teacher skilled in the selection of material. The 

 experiments are for the most part illustrative and easily per- 

 formed but there are several that require longer periods of 

 time for results than seems desirable. In one the student is di- 

 rected to watch his experiment for a month. It is doubtful if 

 the interest of a high school class in any experiment can be sus- 

 tained for thirty days. While the fullness of the book will 

 detract in a measure from its usefulness in the high school, it 

 will render it doubly valuable to all teachers. In addition to di- 

 rections for the study of the entire subject attention is given to 

 culture methods, botanical microtechnique, collection of mater- 

 ial, etc. All in all it is a book that few teachers of botany will 

 care to be without. 



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