1894. | Current Literature. 205 
the sponge and ending with the frog. A similar series of plants is 
studied from vaucheria to the flowering plant. In the list of plant 
types it is difficult to discover the principle of selection. Why the 
blue-green algze, the red algze and the mosses should be omitted when 
Chara and Protococcus are given a place is not apparent. Yeast, pen- 
icillium and the mushroom can hardly be said to represent the fungi, 
nor do their life histories compare in biological interest with those of 
the Tusts, peronosporas and lichens. The types chosen are all famil- 
lat figures in the positions they occupy but the list can hardly be said 
to be up to date from the standpoint of the botanist. The book con- 
tains an abundance of material to meet the wants of any school. The 
directions for dissection are given in the form of questions which are 
Suggestive and stimulating and lead to the latest and best methods of 
making and exhibiting the more difficult anatomical preparations. 
As amanual of dissection the book is asuccess, but as an introducti 
to biology it is certainly open to criticism. A number of physiologi- 
cal questions and experiments are introduced after the dissection of 
each type but the organism is always approached and chiefly studied 
‘om the standpoint of the anatomist. For the beginner certainly the 
working Out of anatomical details is chiefly of interest and importance 
aS it bears on the solution of problems of function. A dissection 
i ah so planned as to lead the student to group the facts discov- 
aie “aring on this or that problem in physiology. Details of 
Cture which can not be readily so grouped are of secondary impor- 
ti ~ first year’s work in biology. 
of the bo 
Studies in 
 germin 
iN and interesting but they should certainly be preceded by a 
fe history of some one flowering plant. It is as if the 
Nap 
Tan ; : boc 
"via “cording to’the list of organisms studied and descriptions of 
The “© Common reagents and their uses, 
‘Ypography and general make up of the book are excellent. 
The sub; Agricultural Botany. 
i$ no cage of agricultural botany is a difficult one to treat. There 
defined Tange to it. Usually it is made to include the ele- 
