NATURE 



581 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1884 



HANDBOOK OF BOTANY 



Handbuch der Botanik, I. and II. Herausgegeben von 



Dr. A. Schenk. (Breslau : Verlag von Eduard Tre- 



wendt, 1879-1882.) 

 A S early as 1S61 it had become apparent to certain 

 "^ leading German botanists that the limits of their sci- 

 ence had been so far extended as to make it impossible for 

 one writer to treat the whole subject with such uniformity 

 and thoroughness as is required in the composition of a 

 standard text-book, including the substance of the facts 

 well ascertained up to the date of its issue. Accordingly 

 Hofmeister, with the assistance of others, and especially 

 of Sachs and De Bary, planned a joint " Handbook of 

 Physiological Botany," and though, owing to the diffi- 

 culties which are always liable to attend joint author- 

 ship, the parts written by the several contributors were 

 issued at various dates from 1865 to 1877 ; and though 

 some of the parts included in the original scheme 

 never appeared at all, those published are together the 

 result of the most considerable attempt hitherto made 

 to issue a comprehensive and standard Text-book of 

 Physiological Botany. During the twenty years which 

 have followed the adoption of this plan by Hofmeister and 

 his colleagues unprecedented advance has been made in 

 the science, and it is thus still more necessary than before 

 that the task of authorship of a comprehensive handbook 

 should be divided. The " Handbook of Botany," which 

 is in course of issue by Prof. Schenk, and of which two 

 volumes are already complete, is a second attempt, some- 

 what similar in idea to that of Hofmeister, though differ- 

 ing from it in many points. The staff of authors is larger, 

 and since the space allotted to the several authors is less, 

 greater uniformity in date of issue has been attained ; 

 there is, however, in Schenk's "Handbook" no pre- 

 arranged and well-balanced plan of the ground to be 

 covered, or at least the first two volumes give no clue to 

 any such plan. Each article appears to be independent 

 of its neighbours, and must be regarded as a separate 

 essay on a definitely circumscribed, and in some cases a 

 very limited, branch of the science. Since this is the 

 case, it is clear that the " Handbook" cannot be used by 

 beginners as a text-book of the science ; it is suited rather 

 to specialists, and others who may desire special infor- 

 mation on the subjects which are treated. To these the 

 book will be of the greatest use and interest, since the 

 articles are written by well-known men, who have made 

 the subjects of their essays their special study. 



It will be impossible here to discuss each of the articles 

 in detail, nor indeed will it be necessary to do so, since 

 in more cases than one the articles are in the main 

 useful epitomes of more extended works already well 

 known to the public ; in other cases, however, the articles 

 are the result of fresh constructive work. While those of 

 the former category will be merely named, those of the 

 latter order demand more careful attention. 



The first article, entitled " Die Wechselbeziehungen 

 zwischen den Blumen und ihre Kreuzung vermittelnden 

 Insekten," is by Dr. Hermann Muller, whose name will 

 Vol. xxx. — No. 781 



be sufficient guarantee of its excellence ; while it is written 

 in such a style as to interest those who have not made 

 botany their special study. It is followed by a short 

 article by Prof. Drude on Insectivorous Plants. The 

 essay on the Vascular Cryptogams, by Dr. Sadebeck, is 

 one of the most important of the whole series : the author 

 gives a concise account of the chief facts hitherto ascer- 

 tained, and has arranged them on a plan which is well 

 suited to their comparative treatment. After a short 

 general description of the cycle of life as found in these 

 plants, he treats in the first section of the spore, germina- 

 tion, the prothallus with the sexual organs, and the 

 embryo ; while the second section is devoted to the vege- 

 tative organs and the sporangia. Each organ is described 

 successively, as far as it is known, in the various forms of 

 vascular Cryptogams, and thus the comparison of details 

 of structure and development of each organ in various 

 groups is made more easy than is usually the case in 

 other works. Then follows an article by Prof. Frank 

 under the heading " Die Pflanzenkrankheiten" ; this may 

 be regarded as a useful abstract of his more extended 

 work on the same subject, which is already well known to 

 botanists. The first volume is brought to a conclusion by 

 an article on the Morphology of Phanerogams, by Prof. 

 Drude. It has been the object of the author to furnish a 

 compendium of the external conformation of flowering 

 plants, and their sexual organs, reference being made to 

 their comparative anatomy and development. At the 

 present day this object is in itself unsatisfactory : to gain 

 a true insight into the morphology of Phanerogams refer- 

 ence must necessarily be made to the lower forms, and 

 the want of such reference and comparison is apparent 

 throughout this article, especially in that part of it which 

 is devoted to the morphology of the flower. 



The second volume includes, in the first place, a treatise 

 on Vegetable Physiology, by Detmer, which has laboured 

 under the disadvantage of being published almost simul- 

 taneously with the excellent lectures of Prof. Sachs on the 

 same subject. It is followed by Falkenberg's essay, 

 headed " Die Algen im weitesten Sinne," which is one of 

 the most important of the whole series. In the introduc- 

 tion he shows how the classification of the Thallophytes 

 proposed by Cohn in 1872, and adopted by Sachs, led the 

 way to the system of classification proposed by De Bary 

 for the Fungi ; this writer, after excluding the Myxo- 

 mycetes and Schizomycetes, recognises that the various 

 remaining groups of Fungi may be regarded according to 

 their morphological characters as a natural series. Falk- 

 enberg treats the Alga; in a similar way ; he strips off 

 from the whole series of chlorophyll-containing Thallo- 

 phytes (to which the term Alg.e in its widest sense may 

 be applied) certain outlying groups, viz. the Diatomaceae, 

 Schizophycea;,and Florideae ; the remaining Chlorophyceas 

 and Melanophycea; together form that series which he 

 terms the Alga in tile narrower sense. Adopting this 

 general method, the author has constructed a compendious 

 description of the whole series of Alga;, which will well 

 repay those who read it. The essay on the Muscineas, by 

 Goebel, is written in a similar spirit to that of the article 

 which precedes it, and can be well recommended as 

 giving the best concise account of the morphology and 

 development of that class hitherto published. The article 

 by Prof. Pfitzer on the Diatomacea; will be welcomed, as 



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