430 The Botanical Gazette. [November, 
material, but it is perfectly possible for those centers to equip them — 
temporarily for work. That selfish hoarding of material which fears 
that some one else will get the benefit of it is not only contrary to the 
real scientific spirit but shows an entire lack of appreciation of the 
greatness of the field. It must be said that in this country, at least, 
almost every botanist is ready to open his collections and his library to 
all who know how to use them, and in so doing feels that he is advane- 
ing the interests of botanical science. 
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID of co-operation in systematic botany obtains 
in almost every field of botanical work. It is a question whether any 
one man should prepare a complete work upon so young a subject as 
Physiological Botany, for it is impossible for him to examine the whole 
field, and certainly not in Morphology. Of course reference 1s not 
made to brief, compiled texts, but to monographic work. In this 
connection it may be said that a suggestion was made at the Madison 
meeting which would be immensely useful if carried out, namely, that 
botanists arrange for an exchange of index cards, each contributor be- 
ing assigned certain publications for indexing, the cards being pnim! 
in uniform style and sent to all the others. This sort of co-operation 
would speedily lead to even more complete and effective organization 
of w hee 
Ir Is CERTAINLY true that the progress of botanical science phe’: 
country, and in all countries, will be very much hastened by the com 
pletest possible organization of co-operative work. 
CURRENT LITERATURE. 
A new high school botany.’ men 
A suitable botanical text-book for high schools seems to Y ine 
solved problem of publishers and teachers. The attitude 0 : 
ers is easy to understand, but that of teachers is not so simP* mi 
only botanists who feel that a suitable book for such @ anew 
been written are those who have written them, and the books 18 des 
own hands and in those of their own sagt : 
tory. Every good teacher has his own method, a iding is 
surprising iba no one else expresses it exactly. Professor Spalding 
an exceptional teacher and has produced an exce 
tended to apply to the present condition of high 
, “gnalysis- : 
and teachers and is surely a vast improvement upon @ = ntroduc~ 
: an 
ts, ani 
1SPALDING, VoLnzy M.—Guide to the study of comin. Co., 1893: 
tion to botany. 12 mo. pp. xx11+246: Boston, D. 
llent boo 
