1893 SOME NEW BOOKS. 71 



of stipules as " two small leaves at the base of the leaf-stalk," or the 

 description of the position of the leaves of the iris " at the root 

 (radical)." Knowing the very intimate connection between respiration 

 and life, whether of plant or animal, it is surprising to find this im- 

 portant function of the whole plant disposed of in a few lines thus : 

 " In the absorption of oxygen from the air, it is not so much the 

 foliage leaves that take part as the leaves that are not green, the parts 

 of the plant that are in liower ; these plants perform, when not in the 

 sunlight, a process akin to that which all animals perform, viz., they 

 take in oxygen gas dissolved in water, and send out the oxygen com- 

 bined with carbon under the form of carbon dioxide dissolved in 

 water." 



We know that respiration is more vigorous in opening flowers and 

 germinating seeds, but this is only because life, expressed as more 

 rapid growth and demanding a co-ordinated supply of energy, is 

 " faster " ; just as a man breathes harder with increased effort. 



It is only fair to state that these faults preponderate in the earlier 

 lessons ; where the author confines himself to descriptions of plants 

 he is more at home, and many of the lessons, e.g., that on the Rose- 

 family, are good. 



In spite of the title "Naked Eye Botany," the pupil, as stated 

 in the preface, will find a lens useful, and often indispensable, in the 

 floral dissections. 



At the end of each lesson problems are presented to be done out 

 of school. Many are good and suggestive, some hopelessly beyond 

 the pupil. At the end of the first lesson, one on the chick weed, he is 

 asked whether "animals move about and plants are fixed in the 

 ground " is an invariable rule, and invited to mention exceptions ; 

 several relating to insect visits and fertilisation are introduced with 

 hardly any previous instruction on the subject. 



In the table for determining the natural orders of British flower- 

 ing plants, no notice is taken of exceptions, so that Clematis, Anemone 

 and other apetalous Polypetalae would be sought for among the 

 Apetalse. We notice, too, that both the goose-foot and polygonum 

 family are styled Polygonaceae. 



The book is no worse than many of its kind ; better than some. 

 It illustrates for the hundredth time the fact that it takes the best 

 men in a subject to write a good elementary text-book. 



Systematic botanists, and those who make a hobby of the Iris 

 family, will welcome the appearance of IMr. J. G. Baker's monograph 

 on Iridese (George Bell & Sons). It is uniform with the author's 

 works on the Fern allies, the Amaryllidaceae and Bromeliaceae. Mr. 

 Baker speaks of it as the last of the series, but we hope this will not 

 be the case; the Scitamineae want working up again, for Hora- 

 ninow's monograph might well give way to a more modern one, and 

 if Mr. Baker took it up we should be sure of having it well done. 



Professor Baillon's Histoive des plantes (Paris : Hachette & Co.) has 

 reached the twelfth volume, the first part of which, just to hand, in- 

 cludes the Conifers and other Gymnosperms, with the monocotyle- 

 donous orders, Alismaceae, Najadaceae, Typhaceae, the curious little 

 tropical Triurideae, and the equally strange, almost exclusi^'e, 

 Australian Centrolepideae. The excellence of the previous volumes 



