
130 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [FEBRUARY 
‘Studies in cryptogams.”’ In our judgment this chapter will be unintelligible 
or misleading to those who have had -no other preparation for it than that 
obtained from the preceding chapters. This is no criticism of the chapter 
as to its contents, but as to its pedagogical soundness. 
Another position taken by the author deserves attention. He says: 
‘There are other ideals than those of mere accuracy. In other words, it is 
more important that the teacher be a good teacher than a good botanist. 
One may be so exact that his words mean nothing.”’ The writer sympathizes 
with the thought in Professor Bailey’s mind, for he has encountered these 
oppressively accurate and insistent teachers, whose mania for precision kills 
inspiration; but he doubts whether teachers in the secondary schools need 
any encouragement to be inaccurate. It would seem evident that reasonable 
accuracy, as opposed to pedantic accuracy, and inspiration should coexist in 
the teacher. If there is anything for which science stands, and in which it 
should train even the very young, it is a reasonable accuracy. 
The four general subjects presented in the book are the nature of the 
plant itself ; the relation of the plant to its surroundings ; histological studies ; 
and determination of the kinds of plants. From the pedagogical standpoint 
the author regards the third as the least important. The book is full of sug- 
gestive material for the teacher, and the illustrations are very recite 
he experiment suggested by Professor Bailey is worth the trial, and n 
teacher should be so confident of his own methods as not to await the out- 
come with keen interest.— J. M. C 
The Umbelliferae. 
JUST TWELVE YEARS after the appearance of their first Revésion of 
North American Umbelliferae, Drs. Coulter and Rose have brought out a new 
monograph of the same group, which appears to be a model of what such 
work should be.? 
From the time of Linnaeus to the treatment of our Umbelliferae by Tor- 
rey and Gray, eighty-seven years, thirty authors wrote on the group, pro- 
ducing forty-one books and papers, which contained 195 new species Or 
names. In the next forty-seven years, up to the appearance of the Revision 
of Coulter and Rose, twenty-seven writers, in fifty-seven contributions, intro- 
duced 258 new names or species in the group. And in the last twelve years 
nineteen persons, contributing forty-three papers, have added 108 new species 
and names. e Monograph now issued (as it chances, on the last day of the 
century) describes and places 332 native species and 39 which are considered 
as introduced, or a total of 371, in contrast with 233 included in their earlier 
Revision. No comment is needed on this as an indication of the rapidity 
with which the understood components of our flora are changing. 
OULTER, JOHN M., and Rose, J. N.: Monograph of the North American 
Ar oobi Contr. U. S. National Herbarium 7: 1-256. pls. 7-9. figs. 1-05. 19000 

