TRAITi; DE BOTANIQUE. 497 



varietal appellation saves but little space, aud to print, as Dr. 

 Britton does, "Dodecatheon Meadia Frenchii," is calculated to 

 mislead. Innovations like these afford striking testimony to the 

 ingenuity of the American mind, but they do not add materially to the 

 progress of science. Another point in Dr. Eobinson's favour is that 

 he does not encumber his pages with bogus "English" names, 

 which serve no useful purpose : any one who is sufficiently advanced 

 to talk of the "Wing-stemmed Ludwigia," to cite one of Dr. Brit- 

 ton's names, is not likely to be deterred from speaking of Ludwigia 

 alata. 



We are surprised to see that no more exact date of publication 

 than the year is given by Dr. Britton for his Flora ; we would sug- 

 gest that a definite statement as to this for each part should appear 

 with the concluding volume, which, we are glad to hear, may be 

 expected almost immediately. 



Traite de Botaniquc comprenant V anatomie et la pIiysioJo(/ie vegetales et 

 les families naturelles. Par L. Courchet. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. viii, 

 1320, figs. 514. Paris : BailUere et Fils. 1897. Price 18 fr. 



M. CouECHET is Natural History Professor at the Ecole Supe- 

 rieure de Pharmacie, Montpellier, and the treatise on botany now 

 under review is a rknme of the course of lessons which for the last 

 seven years he has provided for the students at that institution. 

 The method adopted in teaching, having been attended with excel- 

 lent results, has been followed in the book. The latter, like many 

 modern text-books, is divided into two parts — General and Special; 

 and the first is by far the more satisfactory, a remark which also 

 applies to similar works. Botanique Generale occupies pages 1-17G, 

 and supplies a fair introduction to the science, comprising an ac- 

 couut of the general morphology of seed-plants, including internal 

 structure and function (/. e. anatomy and physiology). The various 

 members of the plant form the subjects of successive chapters iu 

 the usual sequence, and the author makes a point of including a 

 brief account of the physiology of each organ ; but physiology as a 

 whole is most inadequately treated, and the student will get but 

 a poor idea of the plant as a living thing, adapting itself in an 

 infinite variety of ways to innumerable sets of conditions. The 

 rest of the work is devoted to Botanique Speciale, and is thus 

 distributed among the great divisions: — Thallophytes, pp. 177-307; 

 Bryophytes, 308-319 ; Vascular Cryptogams, 320-3G2 ; Phanero- 

 gams, 3G3-1295. A little sum iu subtraction shows that near'ly 

 three parts of the work is given to a consideration of the families 

 and orders of seed-plants. We are much impressed with the value 

 of systematic botany, i. e. morphology iu detail and the comparative 

 value of the various organs in the study of affinity, with the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the groups thus determined. But, however 

 successful M. Courchet may have found his method of treating the 

 subject, it does not in our opinion justify the distribution we have 

 indicated, and the great preponderance given to one group, even 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 35. [Dec. 1807.] 2 k 



