| 
| 
| 
1898 ] CURRENT LITERATURE 361 
Cladocarpi 6, Pleurocarpi 306, Sphagnum 21; total 746 species—not very 
ar short of the enumeration of North American species given by Lesquereux 
and James in 1884. One is surprised at this large number even when he 
recalls the tropical climate and the large size of Madagascar. If laid down 
upon the United States the island would stretch from New York to St. Louis, 
with an average width equal to the length of the state of Indiana. 
The Prodromus contains descriptions of many new species and validates 
a number of xomina nuda by furnishing diagnoses. It is a pity that these 
new things were not figured. One could have cheerfully forgone the lux- 
urious margins and hand-made deckel-edge paper, if necessary, for the sake 
of plates.— C. R. B. 
Kerner’s ‘‘Plant Life.’’ 
THE FIRST edition of Kerner’s Pflanzenleben is well known to English 
and American readers through Professor F. W. Oliver's translation, entitled 
The Natural History of Plants. Kerner issued the first volume of a second 
edition in 1896, the second volume appearing in 1898, almost simultaneously 
with the announcement of the author's death.? Inasmuch as the second 
edition follows the same general methods as the first, an extended review 
seems unnecessary. The divisions and subdivisions are generally the same 
as in the older edition, although all of the subjects treated have been recon- 
sidered and brought more into harmony with the botany of today. A very 
some of the new illustrations are red show, dodder, nullipore banks, luminous 
moss, reed swamps, Eucalyptus, lianas, lichens, etc. In many chapters con- 
siderable additional matter is to be found. 
The most noteworthy change is the omission of about 100 pages on 
the classification of plants. This classification always seemed out of place 
in a work-of this kind. The book closes with an entirely new chapter on 
the relation between man and plants — economic botany in the broader 
sense. Those plants which are used in the industrial arts are first discussed, 
then those which are used as food by man and by domestic animals and 
those which are employed in medicine, and for ornamental purposes. A 
historical sketch of gardens follows, beginning with the ancients and ending 
with the botanical and other gardens of the present day. At the close of the 
7 KERNER VON MarILAUN, ANTON.— Pflanzenleben, zweite, ganzlich neubear- 
beitete Auflage. 8yo. Erster Band: Gestalt und Leben der Pflanze. 8vo. pp. xii 
o- Ppp. xii + 778. figs. 233. pl. 30 (19 colored). map 7. 1898. Leipzig and Vienna: 
Bibliographisches Institut. 
