PLANT-BREEDING. — LESSONS WITH PLANTS. 199 



sense) and part of the Chlorophycece. Two other fasciculi of the 

 work are to follow shortly. 



In Botaniser Notiser (Haftet i. Lund. 1898), a list is given by 

 Herman G. Simmons of freshwater alg^e which form the most 

 important of a collection made by himself last summer in South 

 Sweden. Some of these records are new to that region. In each 

 case the locality of the plant is mentioned, and critical remarks follow 

 each record. A few species of FloridecB are given : Hildenbrandtia 

 rivularis J. Ag., known in Mid-Europe, Denmark, and the North 

 of England, and Batrachospermum Dlllenii Bory, recorded as 

 growing plentifully with Lemanea fiuviatilis Ag., and Cha7itransia 

 violacea Kiitz. Swedish specimens of B. Dlllenii have been issued 

 as Nos. 1351 and 1352 in Wittrock and Nordstedt's AI(/(b aqum 

 diilcis exsiccatce. Enteromorpha prolifera J. Ag. and E. intestinalis 

 Link. var. fiuviatilis represent the ChlorophycecB, and the rest of 

 the list consists of Ciicuwpkycem. Scliizothrix pulvinata is recorded 

 as new to Scandinavia, and this holds good also of the preceding 

 species, S. laciistris, which Mr. Simmons found " in little ditches 

 near the shore at Rnigsjon by Rarod." Several common species 

 of Phormidium and of Oscillatoria are included, already known from 

 Sweden, and recorded in Gomont's Monographie des Oscillariees. 



E. S. Barton. 



Pla7it- Breeding. Being five Lectures upon the Amelioration of 

 Domestic Plants. By L. H. Bailey. 8vo, pp. xii, 293, with 

 20 figures. Price 4s. — Lessons with Plants. Suggestions for 

 seeing and interpreting some of the common forms of Vege- 

 tation. By L. H. Bailey. 8vo, pp. xxxi, 491, with 446 

 figures. 1898. Price 7s. 6d. New York : Macmillan & Co. 



Under a somewhat modest title Prof. Bailey has given teachers 

 and students of botany an eminently suggestive and useful little 

 book on plant- variation. It is not a dry list of statistics embodying 

 the result of experiments on a few economic plants, or a recapitu- 

 lation of the results of other people's work, or in any way an 

 exhaustive treatise, but a few bright chapters in which the writer 

 first enunciates the principles of the origin of forms, varieties, and 

 species, and then illustrates them by application to some well-known 

 domestic plants. The militant evolutionist will find much to criti- 

 cize, if he thinks it worth his while. The mysticism of Weissmann 

 is dismissed in a couple of short pages. 



Prof. Bailey is talking to students who are only beginning the 

 study of biology, botany, or horticulture. His aim is to impress upon 

 them the individuality of plants, and the reality of their variation, 

 and to point out some of the causes regulating that variation, and 

 how the knowledge thus gained may be turned to practical account ; 

 and we think he has succeeded. We are convinced that those who 

 heard his lectures went away with certain very clear ideas on the 

 possibilities embraced in the term "a plant," which would add 

 interest and purpose to their further studies in its morphology, 

 anatomy, and physiology. These are the titles of the lectures 

 which now appear collected in book form : — I. The fact and philo- 



