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CURRENT LITERATURE. 
Laboratory manual of vegetable physiology. 
The rapid development of vegetable physiology as a pedagogical 
subject is marked by the increase in text books and manuals. The 
latest addition to the list is a work that will be received by every 
teacher of vegetable physiology with much satisfaction. We refer to 
the laboratory guide to the physiology of plants by Francis Darwin 
and E. H. Acton,’ both of Cambridge University, England. Proba- 
bly there is no English teacher of botany from whom a work of this 
kind will be so highly appreciated by botanists in general as from Mr. 
Francis Darwin. The fame of his illustrious father as a keen and 
original experimenter has to some extent been transmitted to the son, 
and has been supported and augmented by many profound and ad- 
mirable pieces of independent research. 
The work is divided into two parts. The first and larger part em- 
| braces general physiology, including such subjects as respiration, as- 
similation of carbon, .transpiration, growth, and movements due to 
Writability. It is separated into 269 experiments, a number so large 
that the prominent topics which have engaged the attention of original 
investigators at different times are mostly represented. Often several 
experiments are devoted to the same inquiry, using different methods, 
and enabling the student to arrive at more or less accurate results. 
Although many experiments are arranged for the best apparatus ob- 
tainable, yet in each case the same principle is illustrated by expert- 
ments requiring only simple and inexpensive devices. Sometimes 
Much is left to the ingenuity and judgment 6f the student. At times 
this is a good method, especially when the teacher sees that the stu- 
dent does not lose too much time in ascertai 
able procedure, but occasionally this method 
the authors to escape from the description 
On the whole, however, the 269 experiments of the first part are ad- 
 Mirably suited to illustrate the present status of vegetable physiology 
_ from the physical and mechanical side; they will add a fresh interest 
to laboratory work in this subject. | 
__ The second portion of the work, according to the preface, gan . 
Particular department of physiology in a more special manner; that 
1Dar s:—Practical physiology of plants. 
Den oe eee din ia the exe, easnbendge, Unie, Exim, 120 MAP 
_ Millan & Co,, New York, American publishers. ees 
38—Vol. XIX—No. 12. 
ning the requisite or suit- 
appears to be adopted 
of a tedious process. 
