THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 31 



Students will soon drop behind those of other states. If one is 

 to have a year of biology there seems to be no reason why he 

 shuld not have a half year of sound botany and another of 

 zoology with some human "physiology," which is mostly 

 anatomy and hygiene, thrown in for good measure instead of 

 one book covering all three subjects. The book in question 

 contains 430 pages, of which 178 are devoted to botany, 138 

 to zoology and 114 to physiology and therefore fairly well 

 proportioned for the business in hand. The two greatest faults 

 the reviewer finds in it is that it is based on the "verification" 

 method and has the laboratory directions mixed with what 

 should be the text. In our opinion the laboratory is no place 

 for a text-book. Here at least, the pupil should study the 

 things, themselves, and be forbidden to crib his facts from the 

 book. The questions should be so worded that he must study 

 the specimens for his answers. In these features the book is 

 far below standard. Certain loose expressions also, may be 

 mentioned such as that buds "come out at the ends of the 

 branches," that "the protoplasm in some cells collects into 

 bodies called plastids" and that self-pollinated flowers "do not 

 produce so many seeds or seeds with so much vitality as those 

 which are cross-pollinated." This latter fact is disproved in 

 every weedy garden in America. In our opinion such topics 

 as the homology of the flower and the history of the dis- 

 coveries regarding fertilization (pollination?) may well be 

 omitted with first year pupils in the high school. The arrange- 

 ment of the subjects in the part devoted to zoology follow the 

 accepted sequence from the simplest to the highest types, but 

 in the botanical part the cell is first studied followed by the 

 flowers and fruit doubtless in deference to Lloyd and Bigelow's 

 opinion on this subject. In favor of the book it can be said 

 that it is profusely illustrated and admirably printed and con- 

 tains a vast amount of information that every teacher may well 

 be glad to have though it is far in excess of what the pupil 



