120 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Apr 



count of the morphologfy and biolog-y of bacteria is excel- 

 lent althoug-h very much condensed. They hold it as ex- 

 tremely problematical that arthrosporous bacteria exist 

 among- the lower forms. It is probably true that Hueppe 

 and DeBary did not sufficiently limit the existence of ar- 

 throspores among- bacteria, but some forms undoubtedly 

 have arthrospores. According- to the authors,b.icteria are 

 divided into the lower bacteria which include cocci, bacilli 

 and spirilli. The higher bacteria include the thread-like 

 forms more or less septate, and oftentimes surrounded by 

 a sheath. They adopt this classification because our knowl- 

 edge is too limited to allow a really natural arrang-ement. 

 While it is true that our knowledg-e of many forms is im- 

 perfect, it seems to the reviewer that the system of Mig-ula 

 is preferable to the artificial g-roups established by Flug-ge 

 Muir and Ritchie, and others. The hig-her g-roup of bac- 

 teriiof the authors includes undoubted fung-i and should 

 be so reg-arded e. g-. the Streptothrix actinomyces. It is 

 to be reg-retted that the authors failed to gfive due recog-ni- 

 tion to the American work. They have devoted consider- 

 able space to technique, and thismattercould nothave been 

 arranged better. The part dealing- with pathogenic org-an- 

 isras is excellent, the literature has been thoroug-hly sifted 

 and the subject matter has been presented admirably. 

 Aside from these few short-coming-s it is one of our best 

 works on bacteriolog-y. The illustrations are a special fea- 

 ture of the work and we can most heartily commend it to 

 all who desire to pursue the subject. — L. H. P. 



Lessons in Botany. — Prof G. E. Atkinson. Henry Holt 

 and Co., New York, p xv. 365. fig-. 276. 



This new text book in botany, is anabbreviated and much 

 simplified edition of his elementary botany. Much of the 

 work has been re-written and is therefore better adapted 

 for secondary schools. The work is divided intothree parts. 

 The first deals with physiolog-y, the second the morpholo- 

 gy and life history of representative flowering plants, the 

 third ecolog3^ Laboratory exercises are arranged with 

 each topic in parts one and two. Excellent figures accom- 

 pany the various topics. A discussion of the homologies 



