﻿»903] CURREN-T LITERATURE 



439 



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well selected, but are intermixed with the work on anatomy to which they are 



related. 



Some chapters and sections will doubtless prove very puzzling to begin- 

 ners, especially those which treat of such difficult subjects as alternation of 

 generations, heterospory, and the fertilization of the egg in angiosperms. 

 The extreme condensation and briefness of treatment will almost defeat the 

 purpose of the author, and we fear will cause these subjects, which ought to 

 be made plain, to be looked upon still as beyond the reach of elementary 

 students. The book is notable for its excellent diagrams, and on the whole 

 '! is likely to prove its value by use. 



Mr. E. F. Andrews,^ of the Washington, Ga., high school, calls his 

 book Botany all the year rounds in itself a taking title. In the body of the 

 book he provides ample work to occupy the students through the winter as 

 well as the summer. Each section is preceded by a list of material needed 

 I for its study. In connection with the reading matter directions are given for 



\ the use of this material, and at the close of the section the student is con- 



fronted with a number of "practical questions." The material for study con- 

 sists chiefly of the flowering plants, only one chapter (of less than forty pages) 

 being devoted to seedless plants and one (of thirteen pages) to ecology. The 

 rest of the book is chiefly concerned with morphology and physiology, the 

 former strongly tinged with the formal morphology of the older school, while 

 the latter is not always accurate, and occasionally distinctly bad. In this 

 part also one finds a good deal of ecology, and the student will likely be con- 

 fused as to the scope of ecology by the existence of a separate chapter with 

 this label. The practical questions are mostly well calculated to set the stu- 

 dent to thinking, but too often they are impossible for him to answer with the 

 data at hand. This tempts him to guess and reason a priori, which is directly 

 contrary to the training sought by science work. Not infrequently the author 

 suggests an answer by referring the student to some preceding paragraph, 

 and so cases could easily be cited to show that the asker could not answer his 

 own questions rightly. The book gives one the impression that the author 

 has some familiarity with modern botany, but that he has not yet thoroughly 

 assimilated the facts which he knows. Though the book has much to com- 

 mend it, it cannot compare in real value with Stevens's and several others 

 ^'hich could be named.^C R. B. 



MINOR NOTICES. 



Mr. a. S. Hitchcock,* assistant agrostologist of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, has published a monograph of the ten North American species 

 of the genus Leptochloa. No new species are described, and some forms 



3 Andrews, E. F., Botany all the year round, pp. 302, /"^j. 343- New York: 

 American Book Company. 1903. 



* Hitchcock, A. S., North American Species of Leptochloa, U. S. Dept. of 

 Agric, Bureau of Plant Industry. Bull. 33. PP- 24. ph. 6/. 1903- 



