270 TME JOUIlXAr OF BOTAXY 



who built for tliera an annexe to the Conservatoire Botanique to the 

 cost of which Burnat generously contributed. 



Space will not allow us to do more than mention the interesting 

 chapters devoted to " Souvenii-s personnels " and " Xotes relatives a 

 mes collaborateurs " ; and we can onlv mention the second part of the 

 volume, in which MM. Briquet and Cavillier in a series of chapters 

 give fuller details of Burnat's travels, of his botanical work, and of 

 his interest in questions of nomenclature ; it may be noted that 

 "Texpression 'denomination mort-nee ' ou ' nom mort-ne ' a ete 

 employee pour la premiere fois par E. Burnat en 1892 (Fl. des Alp. 

 mar. i. p. 198)." Lists are given of Bm-nat's publications, of his 

 principal titles, of the plants bearing his name — which include two 

 genera, Burnatia Micheli and Burnafastrum Briquet, — of his 

 correspondents and fellow-workers, and of the ]n*incipal collectors 

 represented in his herbarium. There are also three addresses de- 

 livered by Burnat, and those delivered at his obsequies at Corsier on 

 Sept. 2, 1920, and at Dornach on Sept. 6. An admirable portrait 

 appears as frontispiece to the volume. 



Practical Plant Biology : a Course of Elementary Lectures on the 

 General Morphology and Physiology of Plants. By Hexry 

 H. Dixox, Sc.D., Kli.S. 8vo, pp. xii', 292, with 94 text-figures. 

 Longmans : London, 1922. Price 6s. 



Tins book consists of a series of thirty lectures designed as an 

 Introductory Course in Botany for medical and other science students. 

 Suggestions for practical work are given at the end of each lecture. 

 The course, which is presumably the outcome of Prof. Dixon's 

 experience in Dublin University, differs from many courses for 

 beginners in that the use of the microscope is treated at the outset, 

 and the simpler forms are first dealt with ; the lectures then pass on 

 to the more complicated forms and " gradually lead the student to 

 some knowledge of the development, structure, and ])hysiology of the 

 higher plants." The evolutionary method thus adopted involves 

 working from the less to the more familiar forms of plant-life and 

 plunges the student at once into the more difiicult technique of the 

 subject. Some of the older generation of botanists will remember 

 beginning their work on similar lines. The subjects of study, fol- 

 lowing on chapters upon the microscope and cell-structure respec- 

 tively, are yeast, Chlamydomonas, and bacteria (each with two 

 lectures), Spirogyra, Volvox, Vaiicheria, Mucor, Penicillium, Fucus, 

 Pdlysiphonia, Marchantia (two lectures), Funaria, Aspidium (two 

 lectures), Selaginella, Pin us (three lectures). Ranunculus (two 

 lectures), and Scilla. Physiology is introduced where appropriate; 

 thus the earlier lectures give opportunity for discussion of respiration, 

 photosynthesis and enzyme action; and the anatomy of the plant- 

 structures is also studied. The three concluding lectures deal with 

 nuclear division, heredity and evolution, and the theory of descent. 

 AVe find the print trying to read ; it is rather small and shows through 

 the paper. The figures are generally adequate, but the drawing of 

 Mucor ahowing mycelium and sj)orangia would not have passed muster 

 in the old davs. A. B. B. 



