NOTICES OF BOOKS. 189 



the production of it. The arrangement of the book is a novel one, 

 and no doubt this attracted those who are responsible for its 

 appearance quite as much as its other merits. The arrangement is 

 as follows : — Part I. deals with Morphology; the root, stem, leaves 

 (flower, fruit, seed), and hairs at considerable length. Part II. is 

 devoted to Systematic Botany, the higher plants only, (1) Mono- 

 cotyledons and (2) Dicotyledons being dealt with in detail. Part III. 

 is occupied with an admirable account of fertilisation by wind and 

 by insects, and the transport of seeds, &c., by water, wind, and 

 animals. Part IV. contains Anatomy (the cell and the tissues) and 

 Physiology. In Part V. we come again to Systematic Botany, 

 beginning with the lowest plants (for which the student has been 

 prepared by Part IV. ) and ascending to the higher plants again — 

 the groups being dealt with very shortly. 



It will be obvious that the learner is thus gradually introduced 

 to the more difficult branches of the study — and this, I venture to 

 think, might have been better done by going steadily down from 

 the highest to the lowest plants. With this exception and the 

 farther one, that the reviser might with advantage have taken 

 liberties with the classification so as to bring it out of the German 

 land of darkness in systematic affairs, the book is wholly to be 

 recommended. It will be specially serviceable to those who study 

 Botany at their leisure away from classes of instruction, and the 

 regular student will certainly find it a pleasant introduction as well 

 as a thorough one to all branches of the science. In spite of its 

 being a translation, it is by far the most readable text-book of its 

 kind that we have, and decidedly it is the best-illustrated. 



The first part of Messrs. Bower and Vines' Practical Botany is 

 a valuable addition to our literature in these days, when a new 

 departure has been taken in the methods of teaching Botany in this 

 country. The book is, as its name sets forth, very practical, and 

 very well fitted for its purpose. G. M. 



A Flora of the Em/Iish Lake District. By J. G. Baker, F.K.S. 

 London : Bell & Sons, 1885. 8vo, pp. vi. 262. 



The English Lake district presents so many features of interest 

 to the botanist that it is somewhat strange there should have been 

 hitherto no connected account of its Flora. " A mountainous tract 

 with a distinct physical individuality of its own, and with a distinct 

 botanical individuality, both in respect of the plants that are present 

 and those that are rare or absent," — we quote from Mr. Baker's 

 preface, — it does not correspond exactly with Mr. Watson's Lake 

 Province, the district included " extending northward and eastward 

 to AUonby, Wigton, Penrith, and Tebay," but excluding "the low- 

 lying northern half of Cumberland, often called the Plain of Carlisle, 

 and the western slope of the Pennine Chain through Cumberland 

 and Westmoreland." 



It would be impertinent to attempt a detailed criticism of a flora 

 of this kind unless the critic had himself an intimate acquaintance 

 with the district to which it pertains ; and such an acquaintance 



