

CURRENT LITERATURE. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 

 GoebePs Organography. 



The first part of the second volume of this great work on the organ- 

 ography of plants has already been reviewed in this journal,' The second 

 and concluding part,° now before us, deals almost exclusively with reproduc- 

 tion in pteridophytes and seed plants. The principal subjects are (i) the 

 function of the shoot in reproduction, under which are included the flowers and 

 sporophylls of pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms ; and (2) the 

 reproductive organs, the principal headings being the mature sporangia of 

 pteridophytes, development of sporangia, hypothetical phylogeny of the 

 formation of sporangia, apospory, microsporangia of seed plants, mega- 

 sporangia of seed plants. 



The work, in large part, is based upon the author's own observations, and 

 many facts in the development of pteridophytes and spermatophytes, as well 

 as the theories drawn from them, are published here for the first time. As 

 might be anticipated from the writer's previous work, the biological side of 

 the subject is strongly emphasized. It is interesting to note that the term 

 "flower," while not made sufficiently elastic to include the sporangial region 

 of Onoclea, is nevertheless extended beyond the spermatophytes and applied 

 to the strobili of Equisetum, Selaginella, etc. According to the author, a 

 flower is "a shoot beset with sporophylls/' but how far the boundary is to be 

 pushed is a subjective matter. Bisporangiate flowers are regarded as primi- 

 tive, most monosporangiate flowers being due to suppression. Bower's 

 classification of the ferns into Simplices, Gradatae, and Mixtae is regarded as 

 useful. 



It is very unfortunate that the book contains no index. The table of con- 

 tents is rather full, but cannot supply the place of an index when one wishes 

 to find some particular thing without a provoking delay. The references to 



1 literature are meager and indefinite, and are to be found only as footnotes. 



The book is essential to the morphologist and ecologist, and it is to be hoped 



f that the English translation will not be long delayed. — Charles J. Cham- 



berlain. 



'Botanical Gazette 31 : 204. 1901. 



= GoEBEL, K.,Organographie der Pflanzen insbesondere der Archegoniaten und 

 Samenpflanzen. Zweiter Teil. Specielle Organographie. 2 Heft: Pteridophyten 

 und Samenpflanzen.- Zweiter Teil. 8vo. pp. 649-828. 107 illustrations. Jena: 



Gustav Fischer, 1901. M ^. 

 1902] 



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