1894 THE MICROSCOPE. 63 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The Midland Naturalist, until recently published at Bir- 

 mingham, England, has been obliged to suspend publication 

 owing to the lack of support. We have not heard of any liquor 

 shops closing for lack of support. 



The American Medical Association will meet in San Fran- 

 cisco, June 5, 1894. Odd Fellows hall and 12 smaller halls 

 have been engaged for general and sectional meetings. R. H. 

 Plummer, 652 Mission street will give information. 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



An Introduction to Structural Botany. By Dukinfield Henry 

 Scott. London and New York. Macmillan & Co. 12 mo. pp. 

 288, figures 113. Price 81.00 



Perhaps you think a dollar book not worth much. In this 

 case it would be a grave mistake, for the book is worth two dol- 

 lars. Everything about it is in the bookmakers best stvle. 



The author has hit upon an excellent idea — that of describ- 

 ing something in plain language and then giving the technical 

 name. The whole treatise consists of a series of the most lucid 

 definitions but no technical word is used until its meaning has 

 first been made clear in the narative. Hence we pronounce the 

 style simply suberb. 



To the microscopist the book is of interest as explaining full}' 

 what is to be seen in plant life by means of the microscope 

 though the author alludes to the microscope only incidentally. 



Were we starting a class in botany, this book would be our 

 text book. Should some isolated student ask wdiat book to use 

 to enable him to learn plant structure we should refer him to 

 Dukinfield Henry Scott. Should we find young people analiz- 

 ing plants so as to learn their classification, we should tell them 

 to take only the three plants which this book is based upon and 

 read the physiology and morphology as therein set forth as of 

 intensely more interest than the mere naming of a host of plants 

 by external characteristics. We shall await Scott's second vol- 

 ume on the Cryptograms with intense interest. It will be a 

 success. 



