1888. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 41 
Lessons in botany. 
Dr. Gray has been preéminently the teacher of botany in this coun- 
try for half a century; not only in marshaling our hosts of North Amer- 
ican plants into an orderly array, but, also,in imparting, by means of his 
text-books, the general principles of the science. No text-book has been 
. More widely used than the one of which this is a revision; and nothing 
could be more appropriate than for the author himself to give a final 
revision, which has been long demanded by our rapid advance in knowl- 
edge. There can be no doubt that this is the best book for its purpose 
that we now have. Choosing for a title that of his first text-book, pub- 
lished over fifty years ago, the author presents, in that clear and simple 
considers are essential for beginners to know. In the preface he wisely 
of a reference book than anything else, and that its technical names mean 
nothing unless applied. In fact, its legitimate use seems to be that of an 
plied in the laboratory. If so useful a book is to be criticised, we would 
say that, although it is a vast improvement upon the edition it is meant 
to replace, there might have been some additional improvements that 
even conservatism will allow to the “cryptogamically-minded.” The per- 
Petuation of the word “ nucleus” to express what we now understand by 
“nucellus ” is a case in point, and must lead to a confusion of terms that 
is not helpful, to say the least. Many of the figures have served their day 
and generation, and might well have been replaced by others, not because 
Sented facts (e. 7., those representing the anatomical elements of the fibro- 
vascular system, pp. 133-135). The figure of Oscillaria, p. 149, could surely 
have been bettered. On page 101, fig. 295 still conveys its old impression 
that pollen sacs are made by rolling up the leaf edges, an impression 
which a sentence added to the foot-note would have corrected. A remark- 
able slip is found on p. 104, where it is said that the pollen of pine “con- 
Sists of three cells, of which the middle one is large, wholly empty, and 
Poisonous piants. 
___ At the time the editorial was written which appeared in this journal 
4 few months since on plants considered harmless by most persons, but 
thoug’ it to be poisonous by some, it was not known to the editors that a 
book covering about the ground there suggested had just been issued. 
*GRaY, Asa.—Th. ; hools. (Lessons in Somme 
, -—The el bo , for beginners and for schoo! ‘ 
revised edition.) Dene. tn fo iehle 8yo. New York and Chicago: Ivison, e- 
Man & Co., 1887,—§1.00. 
style of which he is so great a master, the elements of botany which he 
calls attention to the fact that even this book should be considered more 
extended and illustrated glossary, to be elaborated by the teacher and ap-— 
she latter would have looked better, but because they would have repre- — 
whe 
