236 



BOTANIKER-ADKESSBUCH. 



practical work, the common indigenous plants, sucb a plan heavily 

 discounts the use of the book in a country where those plants are 

 neither indigenous nor common. As, moreover, the scientific 

 names are almost invariably omitted, the student and teacher alike 

 may be puzzled by the first line of the first chapter where the 

 injunction to germinate squash-seeds is given. The four o'clock 

 seed, beggar's ticks, and the like, will prove to be additional 

 stumbling-blocks. It is therefore impossible to recommend the 

 book for use in this country. 



The author has made a happy combination of theory and 

 practice. Innumerable simple experiments are suggested through- 

 out, by working out which the student gradually acquires a fair 

 elementary knowledge of the structure and functions of the seed- 

 plant and its parts. The book begins with the seed and its 

 germination, and the learner is led from the seedling to the adult 

 plant with its root, stem, buds, leaves, and flowers ; fertilization of 

 the latter and the formation of fruit bring him back to the starting- 

 point, the seed. Then follows a useful chapter on the struggle for 

 existence, in which we learn, among other things, that if a single 

 morning-glory were only allowed a free hand in multiplication, 

 there would result in the seventh year 729,000,000,000,000,000,000 

 plants. 



About twenty-five pages are given to the study of some types of 

 flowerless plants ; while the second part constitutes a small flora, 

 including the commoner seed-plants which are likely to be in flower 

 in the Eastern United States at the time of year when the book 

 will be in use. 



A. B. R. 



Botaniker-Adresshuch. Sammhinfj von Namen und Adressen der lehen- 

 deii Botaniker aller Lander, der botanischen Giirten und der die 

 Botanik pflerjenden Institute, Gesellschaften und periodischen 

 Publicationen. Herausgegeben von J. Dorfler. Wien, 1896. 

 8vo, pp. xii, 292. 



Books of this kind, even when iucomplete, are useful; and Herr 

 Dorfler's Botaniker-Adresshuch cannot be said to err on the side of 

 incompleteness. It will probably surprise our readers to know that 

 we have more than 380 botanists in the United Kingdom ; but the 

 gratification which such news imparts is modified by the fact that 

 the claims of many to be included in the list are not very apparent. 

 Excluding those who are no longer with us, such as Mr. Blomefield 

 and Dr. Buchanan White, and subtracting the names of scientific 

 booksellers, presidents of local societies, horticulturists, gardeners, 

 Kew foremen and clerks, there still remain a large number who 

 here appear for the first time in a list of botanists. Full as it is, 

 however, the enumeration might be extended : Mr. James Groves, 

 Mr. Of. S. West, and Mr. J. B. Carruthers, for example, find no 

 place in it. 



The occupations and qualifications of those included are various 

 and at times puzzling. Mr. Alfred Ackroyd, for instance, whose 



