{ 
1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 117 
(p. 202) and once under Didymaria (p. 184), each with an independent 
translation of the characterization, but this detracts little from the gen- 
eral accuracy of the volume, and less yet from its serviceableness. 
Grasses of North America for Farmers and Students. By W. J. Beal, Profes- 
sor of Botany in Michigan Agricultural College. Published by the 
author, 8°., pp. xiii, 457. 1887. Price $2.50. 
Profesor Beal is so well known as a teacher of botany that he does 
not need introduction to botanists by means of a book. In this volume, 
which is intended chiefly for farmers, he endeavors to put the subject in 
such a way as to inform his readers of the general structure of those 
forms of plant life in which they are so vitally interested. Chapters on 
the structure, form and development of the grasses, power of motion, 
plant growth, classification, native grazing lands, grasses for cultivation, 
early attempts to cultivate grasses, testing seeds, grasses for pastures and 
meadows, preparation of the soil, care of grass lands, etc., put the farmer 
in a fair way to cultivate his grass lands intelligently. Prof. A. J. Cook 
contributes a chapter on insects injurious to grasses and clovers, and 
Prof. William Trelease writes of the injurious fungi. Mr. F. L. Scribner 
has contributed much to the value of the work in his excellent drawings. 
This volume can not help being greatly useful to the farming community, 
while the promised second volume will be of no less interest to botanists, 
as itis to contain descriptions of all known grasses of North America, 
with illustrations of at least one species in each genus. 
Microscopy for Beginners, or Common Objects from the Ponds and Ditches. 
By Rec aee te M.D., pp. xiii, 297. New York: Harper & 
This delightfully written book comes to a place almost unoccupied 
among American publications. Its chief object is toaid the uninstructed 
owner of a microscope first, to an intelligent use of the instrument; 
second, to the identification of the common aquatic objects; finally, and 
most important of all, it seeks to point out unoccupied fields and stimulate 
to the persistent study of some special subject. Many persons d 
of a microscope have almost ruined it before they found out how to use 
it, and many others have been at a loss to know what they saw when 
water from some stagnant pool swarming with living organisms was 
examined. This book will do much to help the novice to the names of 
aquatic organisms, and the name once known, the search after informa- 
tion more extended than this guide could furnish can be intelligently 
Prosecuted. It is to be hoped that every one who buys a microscope for 
his amusement will buy also this book and that he will be led by it to see 
that he can add to the sum of knowledge if he will only single out some 
SToup of organisms for steady work. We have no patience with that “micro- 
scopy” which occupies itself with looking at gold-plated diatoms and 
with making “beautiful mounts” of “ triple-stained vegetable sections,’ 
