SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



131 



a way that the reader, in considering 

 any organ, may, if he will, actually 

 sketch each part as he proceeds, and 

 thus make a diagrammatic plan or pic- 

 ture of the entire structure. The book 

 is not for idle students, but for serious 

 ones, and it is not a text-book or in- 

 tended to take the place of one; and it 

 can serve its true purpose only when 

 used by students who have had labora- 

 tory practice as well as lectures in his- 

 tology, and have thus examined the 

 actual structures. 



In his work on Elementary Botany* 

 Professor Atkinson introduces the 

 method which he has found successful 

 in teaching beginners. Many of the 

 newer botanical text-books, in reacting 

 against the plan of presenting first the 

 higher types of plant life, overwhelm 

 the student not only with a multitude 

 of unfamiliar forms, but demand from 

 him powers of comparison and analysis 

 that are generally the result of much 

 scientific discipline. In this book the 

 pupil receives some preliminary guid- 

 ance in habits of correct induction. By 

 studying the processes of transpiration, 

 nutrition, growth, and irritability in 

 plants belonging to higher as well as 

 lower groups, he learns the universality 

 of these life principles, and is led to see 

 the foundations for sound generaliza- 

 tion. This the author considers vastly 

 more important than the knowledge of 

 individual plants. The student, how- 

 ever, in this investigation becomes ac- 

 quainted with special forms among the 

 lower plants, and is thus prepared to 

 take up morphology systematically. 

 This topic begins with the study of 

 Spirogyra, and ends with an outline of 

 twenty lessons in the angiosperms. 

 The final third of the book is devoted to 

 ecology, the study of plants in their 

 natural surroundings and of their modi- 

 fying factors — climate, soil, topography, 

 etc. The illustrations, which are above 

 the average throughout the work, are 

 in this division exceedingly good. The 

 descriptive text of the same section is 

 entertaining enough to be used as a 

 class reader, and would interest those 

 unfamiliar with botany. There are 

 several slight errors to be corrected in 



* Elementary Botany. By George Francis At- 

 kinson, Ph. B. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 

 Pp. 444. Price, $1.25. 



a future edition. In the table of meaa- 

 ures a kilometre is made to equal one 

 hundred instead of one thousand metres, 

 and the references to plates are occa- 

 sionally wrong. On page 345 the refer- 

 ence should be 449, and on page 349 

 should be 458 in place of 4.57. In de- 

 scribing pollination of the skunk cab- 

 bage, the words " rub off " are ambigu- 

 ous. The uninitiated might suppose 

 that the insect obtained pollen from the 

 stigmas instead of depositing it there. 

 The book is not intended for recitation, 

 but for reference and as a guide in 

 study. It is supplied with an appendix 

 upon the collection and preservation of 

 material, and an index. 



A notice of a book * of this nature 

 is justified in this column, since it con- 

 tains much that will be of interest to 

 the student of ethnology, folklore, and 

 cognate subjects. It is interesting to 

 get a glimpse of matters pertaining to 

 social customs, ways of thinking, and 

 the occurrences which animated these 

 ways among the Japanese a thousand 

 and more years ago. The author says, 

 " It is a remarkable and, I believe, an 

 unexampled fact that a very large and 

 important part of the best literature 

 which Japan has produced was written 

 by women." 



The preparation of his Elementary 

 Text-Book of Botany t was undertaken 

 by Mr. Yines to meet a demand which 

 appeared to exist for a less bulky and 

 expensive volume than his Students' 

 Text-Book. A more important feature 

 than the diminution of the bulk is 

 claimed in the simplification which the 

 contents have undergone from the omis- 

 sion of certain difficult and still debat- 

 able topics. The usual di^^sions into 

 morphologj^, anatomy, physiology, and 

 systematic botany are followed; but 

 the caution is appended that it must 

 not be forgotten that these are all 

 parts of one subject, different methods 

 of studying one object — the plant. 

 Hence they must be pursued together. 

 " For instance, the morphology of the 



* A History of Japanese Literature. By W. G. 

 Aston. Late Japanese Secretary to H. M. Lega- 

 tion, Tokyo. D. Appleton and Company. 



t An Elementary Text-Book of Botany. By 

 SydneyH.Vii.es. London: Swan, Sonnenschein 

 & Co. New York: The Macmillan Company. 

 Pp. 611. Price, ^i.-ih. 



