BOTANY : AN ELEMENTARY TEXT FOR SCHOOLS 77 



natural way. This epoch started with the appearance of Kerner's 

 work on Plant-Hfe, but it is to the New World and to men like 

 Professor Bailey that we owe its appreciation and the development 

 of what is at once a rational method of study and at the same time 

 one that is attractive to young pupils. 



The book is arranged in four parts. The subjects are — the 

 nature of the plant itself; the relation of the plant to its sur- 

 roundings ; histological studies ; and determination of the kinds of 

 plants. Each is practically a distinct subject, and the teacher may 

 begin where he will. If he is wise, he will begin at the beginning. 



Part i. — The Plant Itself — occupies more than half the book. 

 It consists of twenty-five short chapters, dealing with the general 

 structure of the plant, its parts, and the parts they play in the life- 

 processes. The text is paragraphed, and the author makes a free 

 use of differences in type to emphasize axioms and other points of 

 importance. The pictures are good, plentiful, and apropos, but the 

 pupil is continually referred to actual plants with which he is, 

 ought to be, or may easily become acquainted. The short review 

 at the end of each chapter is a searching cross-examination between 

 teacher and taught, and may be extended indefinitely. We note that 

 the author occasionally departs from generally accepted use of terms 

 — as, for instance, when he defines bracts as "much reduced leaves" 

 including leaf-bud scales, or uses corymbose as practically syno- 

 nymous with an indefinite inflorescence, or refers to the groups of 

 sporangia on fern-leaves as " fruit-dots." We should prefer, where 

 terms have crystallized out, to retain them, so long as they are 

 useful and not misleading, in their generally received meaning. 



Part ii. — The Plant in its Environment (pp. 197-232) — contains 

 five suggestive and attractive chapters enhanced by a series of very 

 nice photographs of landscape, plant-associations, &c. Part iii. — 

 Histology, or the Minute Structure of Plants (pp. 233-274) — is 

 advisedly brief; it contains directions for microscopic work, and a 

 short account of the general anatomy of stem, leaf, and root. The 

 terms endogenous and exogenous as contrasting the mode of growth 

 in the stem of a monocotyledon and dicotyledon might well be ex- 

 punged from elementary works, as they have been from all up-to-date 

 advanced text-books. Part iv. — The Kinds of Plants (pp. 276-340) 

 — contains directions for making a collection, and an account of 

 twenty-five important families witli their commoner genera and 

 species arranged on the plan of a flora. At the end is an index and 

 glossary, which seems to have been carefully prepared. One would 

 like to think that children in our own country had the chance of 

 learning about plants on Professor Bailey's plan. 



A. B. R. 



