NOTICES OF BOOKS. xxxi 



study. The amount of information crammed into the hundred odd 

 pages of closely printed matter (relieved by but one solitary diagram) 

 contained in the first chapter is positively appalling ; nor can the lucidity 

 of the author's style be said to compensate for the congestion of his 

 matter. We cannot refrain from quoting an example in justification of 

 this remark. Aerial roots, the author says, "are usually formed upon 

 stems or leaves ; such roots, together with branch roots formed upon 

 other roots but not in acropetal succession (see below), are classed under 

 the term of adventitious roots, whilst the original root derived from the 

 embryo together with its normal branches (those formed in acropetal 

 succession) are spoken of as true roots" (p. 21). We heartily condole 

 with the student who attempts to assimilate this clumsily prepared 

 morphological pemmican. And to make the matter worse, the author 

 by no means confines himself to boiling down matters of fact and of 

 accepted morphological doctrine, but under the plea of giving life to the 

 dry bones of morphology by an " evolutionary " treatment, he introduces 

 a large amount of highly speculative matter which does not escape the 

 necessary dogmatism of the whole. 



Of inaccuracies there are, a? was to be expected, but few ; and those 

 almost entirely where the author ventures upon ground which he has 

 wisely forbidden himself in the Preface — namely where he discusses 

 topics which " require the use of a microscope ". 



The part of chapter i. dealing with the " Natural History of the 

 Flower," and chapter iii., which deals mainly with " biological " groups 

 of plants, contain useful if somewhat disjointed summaries of existing 

 knowledge on these subjects ; and the same remark may apply to that 

 part of chapter ii. which deals with the " Principles of Classification". 

 But we must protest against the section on "Variation" in this chapter. 

 There was no need for the author to attempt to give an account of the 

 methods employed in the statistical study of this subject, but having 

 done so he might have taken the trouble to avoid the misstatements and 

 confusions which literally crowd the single page devoted to this topic. 



It is to be hoped that in future editions we may see part ii. some- 

 what expanded, and issued by itself, for we cannot approve the scheme 

 of part i. (entirely apart from the question of its execution). If the 

 author wishes to write a treatise on certain branches of botany, let him 

 devote the necessary time and thought to its production. An adequate 

 treatment of the subjects indicated in the preface would fill at least three 

 times the space which the writer has given them. But do not let him 

 imagine that he is benefiting anybody, least of all the elementary student, 

 by writing what we must reluctantly call a cram-book on some of the 

 most fascinating and important topics in the range of modern botany. 



Estudios sobre la Flora de las Islas de yuan Fernandez. Por Federico 



Johow. A espensas del Gobierno de Chile. Santiago de Chile. 



Imprenta de Cervantes, i8g6. 4to, pp. xi. and 287, with two 



maps, eight engravings in the text, and eighteen plates. 



This is a valuable contribution to the literature on Insular Floras ; 



