418 



added while the book was in the press there probably may be, but 

 they are certainly few and unimportant, and Mr. Jackson must 

 "be heartily congratulated on the success of a work which for a 

 long time has been badly wanted. It is to be hoped that the 

 publishers will see their way to bring out a Zoological " Glossary " 

 on the same lines, which is equally a desideratum. 



G. C. K. 



Agricultural Botany, Theoretical and Practical. By John 

 Percival, M.A., F.L.S., Professor of Botany at the South- 

 Eastern Agricultural College, Wye. London, 1900 : Duck- 

 worth & Co., pp. xii 4- 798, with 265 illustrations. Price 

 7s. 6d. net. 



With the increase of technical education now, at last, found to 

 be absolutely necessary if our national industries are to hold their 

 own in competition with the far better equipped foreigner, the 

 need has arisen for a series of text-books which, while based upon 

 strictly scientific models and methods as ordinarily taught, shall 

 be adapted to the practical, every-day wants of those who, after 

 all, intend to get their living as market-gardeners, farmers, or 

 stock-breeders, and not as botanists or zoologists. This is, we 

 think, sometimes overlooked by MT?iters who have attempted to 

 supply some of the deficiencies of the classes indicated ; the strictly 

 technical exposition has been allowed to effi^ce the application it 

 was meant to lead up to. 



The present work is far in advance of any of its predecessors, 

 and although Prof. Percival has not consented to lower his 

 theoretical standard, he has throughout insisted on the necessity 

 of observation and experiment, and, like every efficient teacher, is 

 quite positive that real practical work is essential to the student, 

 not alone for a proper understanding of the subject, but as a 

 condition of his future commercial success. 



The book is divided into eight parts, the first three dealing with 

 the general morphology and physiology of plants. Parts 4, 5 and 

 6 are devoted to the classification and special botany of farm 

 crops, weeds of cultivation and farm seeds ; this is, perhaps, the 

 most inceresting and valuable section from the practical agricul- 

 turist's point of view, as it is to the unprofessional reader and 

 field botanist. The remaining parts are devoted to the fungi and 



