348 



Notices of Boolis. 



Text Book of Botaiu/ : Morjiholoijical and Physiological. By Julius 

 Sachs. Edited, with au Appendix, by Sydney H. Vines. 

 M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. Second Edition. Oxford: at tiie 

 Clarendon Press. 1882. 



English botanists who are unable to read the work in the 

 original have been so long anxiously looking for the second edition 

 of tiie translation of Sachs's great text-book (the first having been 

 for some time out of print), that the announcement of its publi- 

 cation will receive a general welcome. The first English edition 

 was translated from the third Grerman edition ; the present one is, 

 as stated in the editor's preface, based on the fourth German 

 edition, that of 1874. The merits and defects of the former English 

 edition are so familiar to all English students of botany that the 

 information most desired by the reader or purchaser will relate to 

 the points in which the present edition differs from the one pub- 

 lished seven years ago. Let me say, in the first place, that, from 

 a critical knowledge of the two German editions, I am somewhat 

 disappointed to find that the present edition has not in all cases 

 amended the text where it needed amending. A somewhat hasty 

 comparison detects instances — possibly not numerous, but still 

 sufficiently obvious — where Sachs's own alterations have not been 

 noticed, or where obvious errors or oversights in the translation 

 have been retained. 



Seeing however the favour with which the first edition, not- 

 withstanding its blemishes, has been received, it is fair to predict 

 that the present will not thereby suffer in its usefulness. The first 

 thirty-two pages have been entirely revised and re-written by Dr. 

 Vines (a portion having been already printed before it came into 

 his hands), who has added also an appendix of eighteen pages. 

 In this he calls attention to points in wdiich recent discoveries 

 necessitate correction of or addition to statements made in the 

 earlier portion of the text ; and both here and in the latter part 

 of the work itself he adds notes of his own. The careful studies 

 made by Dr. Vines in so many departments of botanical mor- 

 phology and physiology are sufficient guarantee that these notes 

 have been framed with care and judgment, and that they add 

 materially to the value of the work. 



The sections in which the most important alterations and 

 additions have been made are thus stated by Prof. Sachs in his 

 Preface to the fourth edition, which does not find a place in the 

 Enghsh version :— On Cystoliths ; Forms of tissue ; Secondary 

 increase in thickness ; Alternation of generations ; Thallophytes ; 

 Vascular Cryptogams ; Geotropism ; Periodical movements of 

 growing leaves and petals ; Movements of mature organs ; The 

 Process of sexual reproduction. The number of illustrations is 

 also increased by more than thirty. 



The department in which, as might be expected, the new 

 edition presents the greatest difference from the old one, is in 



