CURRENT LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
An English class book of botany. 
THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM of the higher educational institutions of Great 
Britain seems to dominate the writing of English text-books. Some such 
announcement as the following may be found in the preface of most of them: 
“This work is primarily intended to meet the requirements of students who 
are preparing for the Intermediate Scientific B.Sc. and Preliminary Scientific 
M.B. examination of the London University, or for the Advance Stage exami- 
nation of the Board of Education. But students who intend sitting for other 
examinations, etc.” This shows how heavy a responsibility rests upon the 
men who set these examinations, and if the subjects and methods they demand 
be not the ones best suited for training a student in botany—why, so much 
the worse for the student! The book before us? consists of four parts. Part 1 
(280 pages) is a description of the structure of plant “types,” including the 
sunflower, bean, elm, mare’s-tail, water-lily, maize, yucca, pondweed, pine, 
selaginella, two ferns, polytrichum, pellia, fucus, ulothrix, spirogyra, vauche- 
ria, haematococcus, agaricus, pythium, mucor, eurotium, yeast, bacteria, 
physcia ; part 2 (130 pages) is concerned with special morphology and classi- 
cation of angiosperms, under which are the flower and inflorescence, pollination, 
fruits and seeds, and about sixty pages giving the characters of the orders o 
angiosperms ; part 3 (cut off with 65 pages) treats of the physiology of oe 
while part 4 (16 pages) is a running glossary of descriptive terms. xt 
is reasonably accurate, though by no means flawless, and the book is ner 
a compendium of information upon the topics which it treats. As the types 
are studied in the reverse order from their evolution, a philosophical presen- 
tation is practically impossible. Some tables of homologies are given, but 
the student must hold the facts by sheer strength of memory. The illustra- 
tions, ‘especially drawn for the work,” are for the most part extremely crude 
and some are quite ludicrous. One can hardly imagine that the delineator of 
a section of a developing ovule (fig. 84, Il) and of physcia (fg. 150) ever saw 
these structures, The book is not one that will be of service to American 
students, though it may be helpful to those who are obliged to sit for British 
examinations.—C, R. B. 
Protoplasmic streaming. 
A BRIEF ABSTRACT of his extensive work upon this subject was communi- 
cated to the Royal Society in February last by Dr. Ewart. Through the gen- 
*Muneg, G. P., and MASLEN, A. J., A class book of botany. 12mo, pp. xvi +512, 
figs. 228. London: Edward Arnold. 1903. 7/6. 
1903] 238 
