230 THE .TOL'JtNAL OF BOTAINY 



even provides a " slip " on which these may be entered. The pages 

 of this Journal will provide him with some : thus Miers's genus 

 Micrcea^ entered as " Inc. sed.," was identified as long ago as 1880 

 (p. 20) with Ruellia dulcis Cav. ; Decadla Lour. " inc. sed." is in 

 the same Journal for 1914 (p. 146) shown by Mr. Moore {op. cit. 148) 

 to be identical with Si/mplocos,SiS is also Dicalyx oi the same author, 

 which Dr. Willis omits ; we miss Mr. Moore's Capitajiopsis {op. cit. 

 1916, 249) ; his identification of Fhocea Seem. {op. cit. 1918, 204) 

 perhaps came too late for inclusion : but enough has been said to 

 suggest a more careful search than appears to have been made. 



The Living Cycads. By Charles Joseph Chamberlain, xiv-f 

 172 pp., small 12mo cl., price $1.50. University of Chicago 

 Press. 



Mr. C. J. Chamberlain has been engaged in the study of Cycads 

 for over fifteen years, and his paper on the reproduction of Dioon 

 (1906) will be regarded as a classic. The present handy little volume 

 contains a general account of the living types of this remarkable 

 group, and is preliminary to a more detailed monograph. The text 

 comprises a useful summary of the more important factors of somatic 

 and reproductive organization of the leading types, in the simplest 

 terms possible ; and in the theoretical discussion evolutionary dogma 

 is not pressed beyond its legitimate bounds. The numerous clear 

 illustrations aid in affording a very definite idea of the botanical 

 interest and value of the living survivors of a once mighty race. 



Perhaps the part that will be found of greatest interest to British 

 readers will be the account of the plants as found growing in their 

 natural surroundings in the West Indies, Mexico, South Africa, and 

 Australia. For such information, at first hand, the author holds a 

 unique authority. It is also a somewhat curious reflection that the 

 types least known in essential details are those of our own colonies — 

 as the great Macrozamia of Queensland, in process of extirpation, 

 Bowenia and Encephalartos. 



In a book intended to be semi-popular, exception may be possibly 

 taken to one point — the prominence afforded to sexual terms as 

 " female plant," ** female " sporophyll, eggs and sperms. One might 

 perhaps put up with " ova," but there are certainly no " eggs " in 

 plants, and '* fruiting " individual is quite as effective, and much 

 more accurate, than " female " as apphed to a tree. There is nothing 

 in the way of sex-ditt'erentiation in a plant which may not be 

 covered quite concisely and intelligently by " micro-" and " mega- " 

 (whether in reference to *♦ spore" or "gamete-" mechanism); and 

 where all the customary terms are employed, it would be a matter of 

 congratulation to find a botanist capable of choosing definite and 

 accurate expressions, and scrapping all others. 



^ A.H.C. 



