HANDBOOK OF CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 283 



urging the necessity of action towards the only really satisfactory 

 solution of the question, namely, the submitting it to a congress 

 selected from those botanists and zoologists who are experts in the 

 formation and use of scientific terms. 



With regard to classification, the authors have chosen to com- 

 mence rather at the top of the series than at the bottom. There 

 are many arguments in favour of either course of procedure. 

 Perhaps, on the whole, the former alternative is preferable for 

 beginners, and the latter for more advanced students. Huxley and 

 Martin's ' Elementary Biology,' the arrangement which is referred 

 to as an example to be followed, seems intended for students 

 distinctly junior to those who will use the present * Handbook,' 

 which is also, however, admirably adapted for use in schools and 

 colleges where Science is taught. 



That classification adopted in some important German manuals, 

 and for a while in great vogue among ourselves, which abolishes 

 altogether the division into Algae and Fungi, and substitutes for it 

 one into three great classes, the ZygosporecE, Oospores, and Carpo- 

 sporecB, ''distinguished solely by the degree of complexity of the 

 sexual process," is rejected in favour of the natural and time- 

 honoured arrangement. The able arguments in favour of this 

 conservative course will probably convince all who have not made 

 up their minds on the relative merits of the two^methods, that " the 

 old is better." 



It will perhaps be most helpful to those who are desirous of 

 knowing what the systematic portion of the book is like, if a sbort 

 sketch is given of each of the seven great subdivisions in which the 

 Cryptogamia are arranged. 



The Vascular Cryptogams are divided into two series, the Hetero- 

 sporous, containing the Rhizocarpea and Selagiiiellacea;, and the 

 Isosporous, which comprehends all the more important and better- 

 known classes. This classification, a familiar one to readers of Mr. 

 Bennett's works, has advantages in the way of convenience, but the 

 more usual division into Filicinece, Eqiiisetinea, and Lycopodinece, is 

 far more in accordance with genetic relations, and lends itself more 

 readily to the introduction of missing-link fossil forms. The 

 detached description of the Vascular Cryptogams is preceded by a 

 very complete and lucid account of the homologies between their 

 organs of reproduction and those of the Phanerogams, which will 

 give the student a clear idea of one of the most difficult subjects in 

 the whole range of botanical study. Similarly clear descriptions 

 are given of the phenomena of Apospory and Apogamy. 



The Musdnew (Bryophyta) present no novelty in their classifi- 

 cation. The account of the alternation of generations in the Mosses 

 and of the identity of the sporogone with the sporophyte generation 

 is given with remarkable clearness, so as to be quite intelligible 

 even to one reading of it for the first time. 



The little group of CharacecB have the whole third subdivision to 

 themselves -on what will probably appear to many botanists the 

 insufficient ground of their vegetative structure approximating to 

 Cormophytes rather than Thallophytes. 



