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159° BOTANICAL GAZETTE [AUGUST 
I treats of the structure and properties of protoplasm, including its composi- 
tion, its relation to external conditions, and its power of organism building. 
Division II deals with the physiological operations of plants. Here are 
included nutrition, growth, reproduction, irritability, locomotion, and protec- 
tion. The last two are not treated, however, the statement being made that 
they are almost purely ecological in their nature. 
The titles of the exercises throughout this entire part are put in the form 
of questions. The directions which follow are designed to aid the student 
in answering the question, but do not answer it for him. Just enough discus- 
sion is brought in with the laboratory directions to arouse the student's inter- 
est in the experiment in hand, and to make him appreciate what are its 
essential points. Ample references to the literature are constantly given, 
even to original articles; the author believes that direct contact with the 
sources of information is of great pedagogical value. Good half-tone repro- 
ductions of photographs show the student just how.the more complicated 
forms of apparatus are to be set up. With their aid he should be able to 
bring his experiment to completion with a minimum amount of aid from the 
teacher. 
Following this part are several pages of addenda in which are noted 
numerous improvements upon apparatus described in the body of the book. 
The course as outlined by Professor Ganong will doubtless occupy more 
time than many can give to an elementary course in plant physiology. For 
such teachers the book will still be useful, since it is so well arranged that 
one can easily strike out a topic here and there without materially affecting 
the course as a whole. The style is clear, vivid, and scholarly throughout. 
We can think of no book yet published which might better “serve as a guide 
to the acquisition of a general physiological education.” BURTON EDWARD 
LIVINGSTON. 
MINOR NOTICES. 
THE Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 21: 1900, 
contains 275 pages devoted largely to zoological papers and matters of gen- 
eral interest. The following are of special interest to botanists: C. A. 
Koroip, The plankton of Echo river, Mammoth cave; HENRY B. WARD, 
Comparative study of methods in plankton measurements ; GeorGE C. 
WHIPPLE, Chlamydomonas and its effect on water supplies ; CHARLES E. 
Bessey, The modern conception of the structure and classification of dialo ic 
with a division of the tribes and a rearrangement of the North, American 
genera. Professor Bessey accepts Miiller’s view that the filamentous condi- 
tion is the primitive one, and that diatoms should be regarded as typically 
filamentous rather than as unicellular forms. They should then be classed 
between the Peridiniales on the one hand, and the Desmidiaceae and Zygne 
maceae on the other. The Zygnemaceaeare regarded as the most primitive 
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