BOTAM' OF THE LIVING PLAXT 229 



definite conclusions drawn, while the word " probably " is not so 

 insistent at every point of difficulty. Students only too readily pick 

 ■up the habit of vagueness and indefiniteness where precision is the 

 more needed as the subject becomes the more complex. Professor 

 Bowers volume may be thus welcomed as an admirable first draft of 

 a useful text-book, and one may look for emendations in many details 

 in later editions. 



A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns. By J. C. 

 Willis, M.A., Sc.D. Fom-th edition revised and rewritten. 

 Cr. 8vo, cloth, pp. xii, 712, liv. Price £1 net. Cambridge 

 University Press. 



This work made its first apjDearance in 1897, when it formed the 

 second part of the Manual and Dictionary which was noticed by 

 Dr. Kendle in this Journal for that year (p. 109). The reviewer, 

 while praising the Dictionary, criticized the Manual portion some- 

 what severely, and not without effect, as the notice of the second 

 edition showed (Journ. Bot. 1904, 158). A third edition appeared in 

 1908 and w^as reprinted six years later: we now have it "completelv 

 revised and as far as possible brought up to date." The most note- 

 worthy featm-e of this new edition is " the incorporation of all the parts 

 into one general dictionary and the omission of Part I. of previous 

 editions." The result is a volmne which it would be impossible to 

 commend too warmly. By an ingenious method of compression fully 

 described in the introduction, an astonishing amount of information 

 is conveyed. " All the genera of Bentham, Hooker, Engler, Prantl, 

 and Linnaeus are now^ included, as w^ell as all given in the Index 

 Kewensis and Supplements (except many synonyms) together with a 

 large number published since the last Suj^plement, and which {sic) by 

 the kindness of the Director at Kew, the compiler has been able to 

 obtain from the MS. lists kej^t at Kew." Each name is follow^ed by 

 that of its author ; then comes that of the family to which it belono-s, 

 with a statement of the number of species contained therein and its 

 geographical distribution ; " the histological peculiarities of the most 

 important genera are dealt with pretty fully : in deahng with the 

 pollination-methods of fiow^ers a selection of important genera, illus- 

 trating the various methods, has been made ; so too with epiphytes, 

 xerophytes, the morphology of parts, and so on. Economic botany 

 has been more fully treated, only comparatively few genera being 

 omitted." English and colonial names are well represented, as are 

 also botanical terms, with explanations. There are also general articles 

 of considerable length, of which an index is given : the very full and 

 practical instructions on collecting occupy more than four pages— the 

 pamphlet on the subject issued by the Department of Botany should 

 have been included in the literature indicated, than w^hich it is more 

 readily accessible. In an appendix is a key to the families of floAvering 

 plants, based on Engler's classification. In typography and arrange- 

 ment the volume leaves nothing to be desired : it is a book which 

 should find a place in every botanical library, however small. 



We note that Dr. Willis invites additions and corrections, and 



