1893 SOME NEW BOOKS. 71 
of stipules as ‘¢ two small leaves at the base of the leaf-stalk,”’ or the 
description of the position of the leaves of the iris ‘‘at the root 
(radical).”’ Knowing the very intimate connection between respiration 
and life, whether of plant or animal, it is surprising to find this im- 
portant function of the whole plant disposed of in a few lines thus: 
‘‘In the absorption of oxygen from the air, it is not so much the 
foliage leaves that take part as the leaves that are not green, the parts 
of the plant that are in flower; these plants perform, when not in the 
sunlight, a process akin to that which all animals perform, viz., they 
take in oxygen gas dissolved in water, and send out the oxygen com- 
bined with carbon under the form of carbon dioxide dissolved in 
water.” 
We know that respiration is more vigorous in opening flowers and 
germinating seeds, but this is only because life, expressed as more 
rapid growth and demanding a co-ordinated supply of energy, is 
‘“‘ faster’; just as a man breathes harder with increased effort. 
It is only fair to state that these faults preponderate in the earlier 
lessons ; where the author confines himself to descriptions of plants 
he is more at home, and many of the lessons, ¢.g., that on the Rose- 
family, are good. 
In spite of the title ‘“‘Naked Eye Botany,” the pupil, as stated 
in the preface, will find a lens useful, and often indispensable, in the 
floral dissections. 
At the end of each lesson problems are presented to be done out 
of school. Many are good and suggestive, some hopelessly beyond 
the pupil. At the end of the first lesson, one on the chickweed, he is 
asked whether ‘‘animals move about and plants are fixed in the 
ground”’ is an invariable rule, and invited to mention exceptions; 
several relating to insect visits and fertilisation are introduced with 
hardly any previous instruction on the subject. 
In the table for determining the natural orders of British flower- 
ing plants, no notice is taken of exceptions, so that Clematis, Anemone 
and other apetalous Polypetale would be sought for among the 
Apetale. We notice, too, that both the goose-foot and polygonum 
family are styled Polygonacee. 
The book is no worse than many of its kind; better than some. 
It illustrates for the hundredth time the fact that it takes the best 
men in a subject to write a good elementary text-book. 
SysTEMATIC botanists, and those who make a hobby of the Iris 
family, will welcome the appearance of Mr. J. G. Baker’s monograph 
on Irideze (George Bell & Sons). It is uniform with the author’s 
works on the Fern allies, the Amaryllidacee and Bromeliaceze. Mr. 
Baker speaks of it as the last of the series, but we hope this will not 
be the case; the Scitamineze want working up again, for Hora- 
ninow’s monograph might well give way to a more modern one, and 
if Mr. Baker took it up we should be sure of having it well done. 
ProFessor Baitton’s Histoire des plantes (Paris: Hachette & Co.) has 
reached the twelfth volume, the first part of which, just to hand, in- 
cludes the Conifers and other Gymnosperms, with the monocotyle- 
donous orders, Alismacez, Najadacee, Typhacee, the curious little 
tropical Triuridew, and the equally strange, almost exclusive, 
Australian Centrolepidee. The excellence of the previous volumes 
