Bd.LXXXIX. No. 23. XXtll. Jahrgang. 



Botanisches Centralblatt. 



Referirendes Organ 



der 



Association Internationale des Botanistes 



für das Gesammtgebiet der Botanik. 



Herausgegeben unter der Leitung 

 des Präsidenten : des Vice-Präsidenten : und des Secretärs : 



Prof. Dr. K. Goebel. Prof. Dr. F. 0. Bower, Dr. J. P. Lotsy. 



von zahlreichen Specialredacteuren in den verschiedenen Ländern. 



Dr. J. P. Lotsy, 



Chefredacteur. 



No. 23. 



Abonnement für das halbe Jahr 14 Mark 



ciirch alle Buchhandlungen und Postanstalten. 



1902. 



Alle für die Redaction bestimmten Sendungen sind zu richten an Herrn 

 Dr. J. P. LOTSY, Chefredacteur, Leiden (Holland), Oude Rijn 33 a. 



Referate. 



Bergen, Joseph Y., Foundations of Botany. 412 pp. Boston 

 (Ginn & Co.) 1901. 



This is a text-book written on the same plan as the author's Elements 

 of Botany, wich appeared from the same publisher in 1896, but enlarged. 



The iirst three chapters are given to the seed and seedling. Here 

 is discussed not only the form of the seedling but also the function and 

 method of development of the different parts, the storage of food material 

 and the conditions necessary for germination. About 150 pages are then 

 given to the structure and functions of stem, root and leaf. A chapter 

 ist devoted to „Protoplasm and its properties". The morphology of 

 flower and fruit are discussed in the next forty pages. Eighty pages are 

 then given to Classification and examination of types of cryptogams, with 

 a general chapter on the evolutionary history of plants. 



Part II is devoted to ecology; not only plant societies but also the 

 ecology of the flower and of seed distribution, parasites and messmates, 

 carnivorous plants and the protection of plants against animals. The final 

 chapter discusses briefly the struggle for existence. 



In his preface the author states that he „has attempted to steer a 

 middle course between the advocates of the out-of-door school and of 

 the histological school of botany teaching". In this he has been very 

 successful. The Student, upon completing such a course, will not have 

 a narrow idea of botany based upon a knowledge of „bottle and sealing 

 wax plant physiology", the forms of stem, root and leaf, the charac'te- 

 ristics of families, or the names of one hundred plants in the local flora, 

 but a very happy combination of all. Directions for simple physiolo- 

 gical experiments are given in their proper place when the Student is 

 studying the form of a structure and should wish to know its function. 

 The histological structure of an organ is discussed when it will aid in the 

 understanding of form or function. 



Botan. Centralbl. Bd. LXXXIX. 1902. 41 



