456 EL^IMENTS DE BOTANIQUE. 



steadily through the genus. Her plates are excellently rendered, and 

 illustrate the striking points of structure in a carefully selected style. 



G. M. 



Elements de Botanique, Par Ph. Van Tieghem. Troisieme edition 

 revue et augmentee. 8vo. Vol. i. — Botanique generale, 

 pp. 559, figs. 235 ; vol. ii. — Botanique speciale, pp. 612, 

 figs. 345. Paris : Masson & Cie. 1898. 



Teachers and students of botany in this country will find much 

 to interest them in Prof. Van Tieghem's text-book, as well as a 

 considerable diversity from the method of treatment of the subject 

 to which they have become accustomed. The book is issued in two 

 neat and handy volumes, a practice which we would recommend to 

 English publishers, who do not always realize what a comfort it 

 is to have books light enough to hold in the hand whilst reading. 

 At the same time we would criticise severely a practice which no 

 respectable publisher should tolerate, we mean that of borrowing 

 figures without acknowledgment. In the present case the author 

 has borrowed extensively, but there is nowhere any indication that 

 the illustrations are not original. 



The first volume is a general account of the morphology and 

 physiology of plants, in which the most striking feature is the joint 

 consideration of the two aspects. Thus Chapter I., "The Plant- 

 body," falls into two sections — the first a general morphological 

 review of the plant, its external and internal differentiation into 

 members and tissues, and its modes of reproduction ; the second 

 an introduction to the study of functions and relation to environ- 

 ment, or physiology. The next chapters deal successively with 

 root, stem, leaf, and flower, in each case from first a morphological, 

 secondly a physiological, point of view. In Chapters VI., VII., 

 VIII., and IX., the course of development in Phanerogams, Vascular 

 Cryptogams, Muscine^e, and Thallophytes is successively treated ; 

 while the tenth and last chapter is entitled "Development of the 

 Race." The whole forms a concise and well-arranged introduction 

 to the study of plants. 



It is in the second volume that one finds the most striking 

 departures from generally received views. The four usual groups, 

 Thallophytes, Muscinese, Vascular Cryptogams, and Phanerogams, 

 are recognised, and there is little to call for remark in the sub- 

 divisions of the first three. We may note that the Myxomycetes 

 form the first order of Fungi ; and Oomycetes, Basidiomycetes, and 

 Ascomycetes the other three. Bacteria are found with the Algae as 

 a family of Cymiophycem. Without doubt they are thus placed 

 with their nearest allies, but there is something to be said for 

 the separation of these lowly organised plants, with and without 

 chlorophyll, as a distinct group — Schizophyta—&t the bottom of the 

 series, to be followed by the Algse proper, and then their derivatives 

 the Fungi. The subdivision of Group IV., on the other hand, calls 

 for some criticism. The two primary divisions — owed to Eobert 

 Brown — into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms are too fundamental to 

 be tinkered with. The insertion of an alternative, " Astigmatees" 



