147 

 REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS. 



The Evolution of Plants. By Douglas Houghton Campbell, 

 Ph, D., Professor of Botany in the Leland Stanford Junior 

 University. [MacMillan Company, New York, $1.25.] 



While the scope of this book includes discussions of or at least 

 touches upon nearly all the important phases of work which absorb 

 the energies of modern botanists, this is indeed the first book to 

 present under this title a " connected account of the development 

 of the plant-kingdom from an evolutionary standpoint." Nor is 

 this to be deemed remarkable when we remember the vast number 

 of forms which comparatively recent exploration has brought to 

 light, that there are large groups which have been imperfectly 

 studied, that affinities in many fairly well-known groups are little 

 understood, and that every day new problems are facing the active 

 investigator. 



As the author says, there is nothing new in this book, and yet 

 this fact by no means withdraws the volume from the category of 

 very new books. A restatement of more or less well-known results 

 of research either for the purpose of coordinating scattered facts, of 

 discussing indistinct or little-apprehended relations, or bringing into 

 clearer view a scheme of phylogeny, is always to be welcomed. Doubt- 

 less the most conspicuous merit of the book is its reliance upon au- 

 thoritative investigation. It is easy to speculate; indeed, there is 

 nothing more seductive than speculation upon such a topic as the 

 origin and ancestry of groups of plants. The treatment here, 

 however,. is most conservative; the attempt to follow completely the 

 lines of development is marked by caution and a commendable 

 scientific sobriety. 



For this reason, the book is scarcely open to adverse criticism 

 except in some matters of detail. One of the most useful features 

 to the teacher who may use this as a text to put in the hands of 

 students is the phylogenetic tables, or, as the author more prudently 

 calls them, "diagrams to illustrate relationship," which will afford 

 a definite basis for suggestive discussion. 



In many ways the most interesting stage of the phylogenetic line 

 or lines is in the transition region between the lower and higher 

 forms, between spore-plants and seed-plants. While the author 



