NEW PUBLICATIONS. 297 



almost iiloiie in this country in the study of the minute anatomy of 

 plants ; it is his treatment of this subject which makes his book so 

 valuable, and it needed nothinj;- but to add to it the latest observations. 

 There was reason, however, to hope, from the reputation that Dr. 

 Masters has made in morphology, that that subject would at any rate 

 be a good deal remodelled. Yet perhaps there was no choice but to 

 leave the book still subsiantially in the form that Henfrey gave it, with 

 only such changes and additions as the progress of botany in the last 

 dozen years rendered absolutely necessary. Labour of tiiis kind is, as 

 Dr. Masters remarks, onerous, and is likely to be inadequately appre- 

 ciated. No one could see, without comparing the text as it now stands 

 with the old edition, the constant traces of revision ; and if some oc- 

 casions for criticism from time to time suggest themselves, they, no 

 doubt, often arise from the editor's desire to disturb tlie text as little 

 needlessly as possible. 



The distribution of the subject matter is perhaps not such as any 

 one would now adopt. The interpolation of the systematic botany 

 between the morphology and the so-called physiology, seems unphilo- 

 sophical, though a common arrangement in text-books. It has the 

 disadvantage of placing the dryest and most technical matter foremost, 

 with the risk of deterring those who attack botany for the first time, 

 and of keeping up its traditional character as a science of hard names. 

 The wants of medical students who have hitherto been the principal 

 buyers of botanical text-books, are no doubt mainly responsible for 

 this. Botany in a medical school is unfortunately only looked upon 

 as one of the ordeals which have to be gone through, and terminology, 

 however uninteresting, is well adapted for examination purposes, re- 

 quiring nothing more than an effort of memory for its acquisition, and 

 being, as soon as it has served its purpose, easily forgotten. Yet with 

 the spread of natural science in our public schools and universities, a 

 totally different class of students may be expected, and greater promi- 

 nence will have to be given to the facts of plant life, and less to the 

 technical apparatus of description. Had it been possible, the best 

 plan would have been to give the systematic part in a separate volume, 

 as Avas indeed originally Henfrey's intention, and, following the plan of 

 Asa Gray and Duchartre, to treat the morphology somewhat more 

 traiiscendentally, working up with it the minute anatomy and the func- 

 tional history of the dillVrcnt organs (pliysiology proper) so as to re- 



