REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS. 17 



that the plant is alive, is working for its own living, is struggling 

 with ita neighbors to obtain its share of the bounties of nature, 

 making use of them even in its efforts to compete with them to 

 obtain the air and sunshine so necessarj'^ to its continued existence 

 and the carrying out of the purposes of its being. To have done 

 this so successfully as Professor Atkinson has done is certainly 

 enough to expect of one small book. And it is in this line that the 

 book will be of the grentest vnlue, for it will help the teacher of all 

 grades to properly appreciate this spirit and to endeavor to inculcate 

 it into the pupil. As to the pupil, the book is not quite as suitH. 

 l)le as we could wish to see it. True, it leads the pupil to logical 

 methods of induction, but by telling him exactly what to think and 

 in wiiat sequence. It leaves him little to do for himself, and it 

 happens at times that he is led to draw very general conclusions 

 from data of insufficient scope. 



The book is abundantly illustrated, and many of the illustrations 

 are very fine indeed, but intermixed are some which are very poor. 

 The illustration of Fucus (Fig. 119), e. g., is certainly one not to be 

 admitted to any book, for, if one did not know the plant in question, 

 he would obtain a very sorry idea of it from figure 119. There 

 are other figures almost as bad ; while, on the other hand, there are 

 many of the illustrations which will be very welcome auditions to 

 our heritage of botanical cuts. As to the accuracy of the facts set 

 forth, the writer has not cast at all a critical eye upon them. He 

 is somewhat surprised, however, to find that iodine solution, which 

 he has always used as a reagent to kill cells and small animals 

 quickly, is sjiid (p. 4) to stain the living protoplasm. The author 

 also makes certain departures from the ordinarily-accepted usage, 

 e. g.; — in beginning all plant names other than the binomial with 

 small letters; — in eraplojnng the spelling " pollenation," etc.; — in 

 occasional lapses from good grammar: — little things, but yet those 

 in which accuracy is more essential in a book having the purpose 

 of this one in view, than in monographs or special papers. — w. A. 9. 

 Synopsis Characeariim Europearum. Illmtrate Beschreihung der 

 Chnraeeen Europcts mit Berilehichtigung der iibrigen Welt- 

 theile. Von Prof. Dr. Walter Migula (Leipzig, Ed- 

 uard Kummer, 8 mk.) 



This little book, an extension of the account contributed by this 



