1889.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 281 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Christianity and Agnosticism. Papers by Henry Wace, D.D., Prof- 

 Thomas H. Huxley, the Bishop of Peterborough, W. H. Mai. 

 lock, and Mrs. Humphrey Ward. The Humboldt Publishing Co., 

 28 Lafayette Place, N. Y. 



The series of papers comprised in this work have been contributed 

 mainly to the Nineteenth Century. Both sides write with vigor, and 

 the adherents of each will probably think their champions have the bet- 

 ter of the discussion. The book will probably have quite a sale. Price, 

 thirty cents. 



Plant Organization : structure and morphology of plants by the 

 written method. By R. H. Ward, M. D., Troy, N. Y. S° (wide), 

 pp. 24. 



The well-known manager of the Postal Microscopical Club and our 

 much-esteemed friend, Dr. Ward, has devised a scheme to extend the 

 study of plants to a grade of teaching not heretofore attempted, and 

 after some trial of it by successful teachers with their classes, he ven- 

 tures to submit it to the public. The writer once contemplated much 

 the same system of botanical study. 



He proposes a thorough and exhaustive study of a few plants rather 

 than hasty identification of many. In this plan, of course, the micro- 

 scope plays its part, magnified sketches of hairs, glands, pollen, epider- 

 mis, etc., being called for. Outline drawing constitutes another part 

 of the course. 



In two pages of illustrations are combined about 250 cuts, illustrating 

 all kinds of roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits. Into 16 pages are 

 condensed a synopsis of plant organization in which are included all 

 necessary descriptive terms with the definition of each. 



Upon this subject the doctor speaks wisely and boldly, but may not 

 secure universal approval, because there are those who still seem to 

 desire to surround scientific knowledge with mysticism. Doctor Ward 

 has no such nonsence about him. In the preface he says : 



The commonly accepted classification and phraseology have been 

 revised, and important changes made throughout, always in the direc- 

 tion, as far as seemed practicable at present, of discarding the artificial 

 and mechanical theories of the past, and the erroneous and misleading 

 terms and descriptions based upon them, and of the substitution of ex- 

 planations and terms treating the plant as a living being, not bziilt but 

 grown. Surely the time has come to cease teaching students to say 

 that organs are "inserted" where they have themselves grown; or 

 that they are " wanting" when really absent because not wanted. 



Without disparaging the usefulness of technical terms as a means 

 of precision to thorough students of a science, it has long seemed evi- 

 dent to the author that the memorizing, by whatever method, of the very 

 numerous unfamiliar terms used by botanical authors, was a serious 

 waste of time to that very large class of short- course students who 

 neither expect nor desire to become botanists. For the benefit of such 

 persons the words italicized, as believed to be suitable for their pur- 

 poses, are either common English words, or those of obvious meaning 

 on account of their familiar roots, or the very few technicalities which 

 seem absolutely essential and which, from their fewness and the associ- 



