350 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



permit a critical presentation of all of the aspects of any part of 

 the subject. The chief purpose of the author is to present practical 

 directions for the demonstration of the principal phenomena of the 

 physiology of the plant, and also details of experimental methods 

 suitable for the exact analyses requisite in research work." 



The sentences which we quote from the preface express both 

 the object and method of the work, and at the same time give an 

 idea of the inelegant and often obscure style of writing adopted by 

 the author. Dr. Macdougal holds an important position in per- 

 haps the most important botanic establishment in America, and 

 speaks with authority on matters of plant physiology — a subject to 

 the advancement of which he has contributed by numerous observa- 

 tions. He has moveover been at considerable pains to bring 

 together in the present volume a large, well-arranged, and ad- 

 mirably selected series of experiments, the formation of which 

 must have involved extensive research both literary and practical. 

 And perhaps, as the title of the work is a ''practical text-book," 

 we must expect a certain brevity and precision affording but little 

 scope for literary excellence. But even at the risk of sacrificing a 

 few of the demonstrations, or increasing the size of the book, it 

 would, we think, have added to its usefulness if the matter had 

 been presented in a more readable form. The practical book 

 should be the companion to the larger manual, where principles are 

 fully discussed ; but unfortunately the larger manual — such, for 

 instance, as students of animal physiology have — does not exist for 

 botany, or exists only in part. The attempt to make the practical 

 book serve the double purpose will end in repelling all but the 

 keenest students ; and while it may serve to instil a certain amount 

 of mechanical precision, such a work is utterly useless as a means 

 of literary culture. And it is unnecessary to cite names in illustra- 

 tion of the fact that the latter is not incompatible with scientific 

 excellence. 



The subject-matter is arranged in fourteen chapters. The 

 earlier deal with the relation of the plant to external forces and 

 conditions, as, for instance, mechanical or chemical forces, gravita- 

 tion, temperature, or light. In the later chapters the life-processes 

 of the plants — nutrition, respiration, growth, reproduction, &c. — 

 are the subjects for discussion and experiment. A useful appendix 

 supplies tables of measures and various constants. Reference to the 

 text is facilitated by a good index, and to papers dealing more fully 

 with the subjects under discussion, by footnotes at the bottom of 

 the page — a commendable method. In spite of absence of literary 

 excellence, the book will be very useful to the more advanced 

 student of plant physiology. 



Mr. Chamberlain's book, which has grown out of a course in 

 histological technique conducted by the author at the University of 

 Chicago, is advertised as " an indispensable book for students of 

 botany." It will at any rate be found a useful addition to the 

 library in the histological laboratory, and a valuable help in the 

 preparation of those elaborate plant-sections, some study of which 

 is essential, if a clear idea of the intimate structure of the cell, the 

 protoplasm, and the various phases of the nucleus is to be obtained. 



