THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 75 



different introduction to botany was demanded and this de- 

 mand the present generation of book-makers is endeavoring 

 to meet. Of this latter kind is Edgar N. Transeau's "Science 

 of Plant Life" issued by the World Book Company, Yonkers, 

 N. Y. This relegates to the back of the book much of the 

 information on roots stems and other features once thought 

 to be the natural pabulum of the beginner and plunges at once 

 into the leaf and the life processes that take place in it. 

 Matter pertaining to the ecology and reproduction of flower- 

 ing plants follows this and then four chapters discuss the 

 algae, mosses, ferns and their allies. Two very commendable 

 features of the book are found in the suggestions for labora- 

 tory and field work that precede each chapter and the series 

 of questions that follow the chapters. These questions, it may 

 be added, are not questions on the text, but refers to subjects 

 which require a knowledge of the text for an answer. The 

 book is well illustrated and clearly printed, but it may be 

 questioned whether the innovation of beginning chapters at 

 the extreme top of the page will prove attractive. The price 

 of the volume is $1.48. 



Prof. Ellsworth Bethel has written a little folder on the 

 "Flora of the Denver Mountain Parks" for the State Histori- 

 cal Society of Denver, Colo. In it some of the more attrac- 

 tive wildflowers are described and illustrated, along with 

 much information regarding the botany of the State in 

 general. 



The writers of botanical books have been justly criticised 

 for their failure to make them intelligible to the general reader. 

 This charge, however, cannot be brought against Dr. C. J. 

 Chamberlain's new book, "The Living Cycads." It is diffi- 

 cult to see how anybody with the slightest interest in plants 

 can fail to be charmed by this lucid account of some of the 

 ancestors of the flowering plants. Dr. Chamberlain has been 

 studying cycads for nearly twenty years, during which time 



