222 NOTICES OF BOOKS AND IMEMOIRS. 



very well done, as far as the limited space has permitted ; Sachs 

 has been here very closely followed, even in the details of the 

 arrangement. It will no doubt strike the English reader as strange 

 that, under the head of Morphology, while sections are given to 

 the root, stem, and leaf, scarcely a word is said about the structure 

 of the floral organs, or of the fruit and seed, the plan of the work 

 requhing that these subjects be deferred till the 2nd volume, and 

 treated of under the head of Flowering Plants. The misprints 

 are exceedingly few, and errors and inaccuracies of a graver kind, 

 such as find their way into the best text-books, commendably 

 rare. The only one we have noticed to which it seems deshable to 

 call attention is where, in the description of Characea, the "nucule," 

 or archegonium, is spoken of as the "sporocarp." No possible 

 correct use of terms will allow an unfertilised germ- cell to be 

 designated a spore ; but Professor M'Nab is not alone in this con- 

 fusion of terms. Here and there we notice that the compulsory 

 conciseness has led to a want of clearness or of an adequate 

 definition of terms which will doubtless perplex the beginner. 

 The least satisfactory part of the two volumes seems to us to be 

 that on classification. The classification of Flowering Plants adojDted 

 is a modification of that used by Sachs, which will be bewildering to 

 English students. It would have been better to have adoj)ted the 

 plan of the work which will undoubtedly become the text-book of 

 classification in this country, the ' Genera Plantarum ' of Bentham 

 and Hooker. In Cryptogams Dr. M'Nab has also closely followed 

 Sachs, even m the very questionable detail of making the Characece 

 and BcmcUoDnjcetes both orders of the class CarposporecE. In one 

 important respect only is there a de\dation, viz., in removing 

 VolvocinetJB (Volvox and Eudorma) from the Zijgusporea, and jDlacing 

 them in Ousjwj-efP, leaving Pandorina and allied forms to form the 

 family Pandorinea of Zijgosjjorea, as defined by Eostafinski, a 

 deviation amj)ly justified by Cohn's researches. The woodcuts are 

 entu*ely taken from Sachs, Prantl, De Bary, and other German 

 and French writers, and are, therefore, excellent. Many of these 

 are, however, too large for the small-sized page, resulting in the 

 inconvenience, where they are numerous, of the illustrations out- 

 running the descriptive letterpress by many pages. The most 

 serious defect of the work is the absence of any index or glossary ; 

 but the two little volumes deserve to become largely used for the 

 purpose for which they are intended. 



A. W. B. 



The Clydesdale Flora. A Description of the Flowering Plants and 

 Ferns of the Clyde District. By the late R. Hennedy. In 

 Memoriam edition, revised. Glasgow : H. Hopkins. 1878. 



This is a fourth edition of a useful local 'Flora,' the author of 

 which died in 1876. The dates of the previous editions are 1865, 

 1869, and 1874, and the present does not appear to have under- 

 gone any alterations. It, however, possesses an additional interest 



