NOTICES OF BOOKS. 243 



tion, at least as far as English literature is concerned. The publica- 

 tions of the Linnean Society ought to be in the hands of everyone 

 who attempts a remme of botanical literature ; but when we find 

 no reference to the above-named papers, while others from the same 

 publications — abstracts of which have appeared in this Journal — are 

 noticed, it looks as if the editors had not had so much recourse as is 

 desirable to original sources of information. 



After this criticism we have nothing but praise to bestow 

 upon the work. In the present part we have the completion of the 

 section on Chemical Physiology, followed by others devoted to Ferti- 

 lisation and Propagation, the Origin of Species, Systematic Monographs, 

 and extra-European Ploras, a very full one on Phytopalseontology, 

 Pharmaceutical Botany, Technical Botany, " Forstwirthschaftliche " 

 Botany (a branch almost unknown in this country), the Diseases of 

 Plants, and finishing with an abstract of memoirs referring to the 

 special botany of the various countries of Europe. 



"We have been especially interested in glancing over the sections 

 on Technical Botany, and that devoted to subjects connected with 

 the cultivation of forests, in both of which are abstracts of admirable 

 papers by writers but little known in this country. Dr. Hartig has 

 published an interesting comparison on the relative proportion of bark 

 and wood produced by the pine under different conditions and at 

 different ages. There are several papers on the effect of lightning on 

 trees. Dr. R. Weber has a very exhaustive memoir on the effect of 

 different soils and other conditions on the growth of the larch, and on 

 the relative amount of the various constituents of the ash in the 

 different parts of the trunk, duramen, alburnum, and cambium-region. 

 The editors of the different sections mostly content themselves with 

 analysis without criticism — a praiseworthy practice. A. W. B. 



Text-look of Botany^ Morphological and Physiological. By Julius 

 Sachs, Professor of Botany in the University of Wurzburg. 

 Translated and annotated by Alfked W. Bennett, M.A., &c., 

 assisted by W. T. Thiselton Dyek, M.A., &c. Oxford: at the 

 Clarendon Press, 1875 (large 8vo, pp. 858, fig. 461). 



At length students of Botany in this country are placed on a level, 

 so far as means of acquiring sound information goes, with their 

 brethren of Germany and Prance. Want of acquaintance with the 

 German language has shut out a large number in this country from 

 incomparably the best existing Text-book of botanical science, and 

 compelled them to trust to the numerous English Manuals, Elements, 

 and Outlines which from various causes and in different ways all fall 

 short of presenting a faithful and comprehensive view of the existing 

 condition of this branch of science. Most are antiquated, some 

 obscure, many only good in special departments, such as terminology, 

 economic botany, or morphology ; in all, the physiology of plants is 

 greatly neglected, and in none have we any broad statement of 

 principles based on extended researches ; a multitude of detail and 

 conflicting opinions being usually presented to the reader instead. 

 The circumstances under which most of our text-books have been 

 produced — that is, to supply pabulum suited to the wants of the 



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