116 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Steadily add to his stock of information, though we doubt 

 whether, at the end of this time, he would have a very clear 

 idea of either botany or zoology. If the modern child is not to 

 be instructed in the pure sciences, then we could wish him no 

 better luck than to study from this book, provided some of the 

 human physiology is eliminated. We are convinced, however, 

 that a combination of the showv parts of botany and zoology 

 will never be successfully substituted for courses in the sciences 

 named. The book contains more than 500 pages and 250 il- 

 lustrations and is published by Ginn & Co., Boston. 



One of the first books to indicate an approaching change 

 in the subject-matter of plant studies is Dr. Melville T. Cook's 

 "Applied Economic Botany." This is a book for the beginner 

 following the time honored sequence from seeds to flowers and 

 fruits, but with most of the laboratory work based on projects 

 connected with the farm and garden. Besides a discussion 

 of the morphology and physiology of flowering plants, there 

 are chapters on Gymnosperms and the lower forms of plant 

 life from ferns to algae. The book ends with an account of 

 the principal plant families of importance to man. In the 

 opinion of the reviewer, this volume is a move in the right 

 direction though it treats rather extensively of one phase of 

 "applied" botany and practically omits mention of the drugs, 

 dyes, textiles and other items of economic importance. We 

 note a number of errors in the text which will probably be 

 corrected in a su])sequent edition. Lcnticel (p 38) is incor- 

 rectly spelled, the underground stem of Arisacuia is a corm 

 and not a bulb, the fruit of the fig is a syconium, not synconium 

 as many another botanist invariably spells it, and cane sugar 

 (p. 107) has more than six atoms of carbon in its molecule. 

 There is also noted a considerable survival of the systematic 

 phase of botany with its abundant terminology including such 

 words as endogenous and gamopetalous. The book contains 

 150 illustrations and is one of the Farm Life Texts series is- 



