148 ERYTHEA. 



favors the theory of a polyphyletic origin, not only for the Angios- 

 perms, which is coming to be generally conceded, but for the Gym- 

 nospenns, his discussion of the latter phase is less full than we 

 should have liked. 



The treatment of the evolution of plant forms, it should be noted, 

 is here restricted almost entirely to a consideration of the repro- 

 ductive organs, their development and differentiation, and of sex 

 relations. The book is said to be intended also for " those general 

 readers interested in biological problems." We fear that such, of 

 this generation, will find the style of presentation, not too abstruse, 

 but rather too far removed from the form of exposition that is 

 termed popular, and will be disappointed, in addition, at finding so 

 little space given to the discussion of the forms of the higher plants, 

 especially those which compose the plant communities of forest or 

 meadow or give character to desert scenery and attract the atten- 

 tion of the traveler. The chapters on Geological and Geographical 

 Distribution, Animals and Plants, and Influence of Environment, 

 will only, in part, compensate this type of reader. — w. l. j. 



The Phytogeny and Taxonomy of the Angiosperms. By Charles E. 



Bessey, Ph. D., Professor of Botany in the University of 



Nebraska. [Bot. Gaz. xxiv, 1-34.] 

 "With a more intensive study of the structure and morphology 

 of the natural orders of flowering plants there has been for a 

 number of years a manifest disposition to break up the artificial 

 group Apetalse of Benthan & Hooker^ and to redistribute many of 

 the families therein included among the Choripetalse, placing them 

 next to their nearest Choripetalous allies. Such a redistribution 

 usually implied, that the families under consideration were reduced 

 and not primitive forms. This tendency has reached its extreme 

 phase in Dr. Bessey' s instructive paper, a paper which carefully 

 and efiectively summarizes the results from paleontology, embryology 

 and morphology. We here find in his segregation of the Chori- 

 petalous families into groups, illustrated further by a phylogenetic 

 table, that all families of the "Apetalse" have been distributed, and 

 that no group of primitive Apetalse stand at the foot of the 

 Choripetalous tree. For example, his suborder Carophyllalea 

 definitely includes Caryophyllacese, Frankeniacese, Tamaricacese, 



