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1898 ] CURRENT LITERATURE 63 
no claims as a text-book prepared for any special class of students. In an 
orderly and very clear way it presents the main facts of the subject, in many 
parts largely partaking of the dictionary style, which is allowable in a manual. 
The part which treats of morphology bears the most ancient stamp, being 
simply Bentley’s presentation modified sufficiently to include newer views. 
In the second edition this is still further revised. The part which treats of 
classification (407 pages) follows the usual method. of treating the thallo- 
phytes, bryophytes, and pteridophytes from the morphological standpoint as 
the basis of a rational classification, and the spermatophytes from an entirely 
different standpoint. This unfortunate group is presented with its usual 
dreary list of cohorts, orders, etc., entirely unreadable, and suited only toa 
strictly taxonomic work. Mr. Green, however, is but following the usual 
custom. 
In the parts devoted to anatomy and physiology, however, the author 
appears at his best, for he is in his own field, and one can recognize the touch 
which has come from personal contact. It seems to us that the chapters on 
physiology give us the best brief presentation of that great subject which we 
ave met. Compressed as it is into 116 pages out of a total of 947 it is surely 
entirely out of all proportion. Gladly would we have contributed to its fuller 
€xpansion the 220 pages (!) of Benthamian cohorts and orders. We can do 
little more than give the titles of the chapters which deal with physiology, 
but even the titles are very suggestive of the treatment. They are as fol- 
lows: The relation of water to the protoplasm of the cell, the transport of 
the water in the plant, the skeleton of the plant, the transpiration current 
(with root pressure and transpiration), the food of plants, the absorption of 
food materials by a green plant, the chloroplastids and their function, reserve 
materials, the catabolic processes, the respiration of plants, growth, influence 
of the environment on lants, the relation of the plant to its environment 
(with irritability), special sensitiveness and its results, the nervous mechanism 
of plants, automatism (with rhythm), reproduction.—J. M. 
Botanical notebook.: 
THE second edition of this little book has been entirely rewritten, and 
ie us a good glimpse of the botanical instruction at Brown University.* 
Xe treats of plants in much the same way as they are presented in Gray's 
€xt-books, namely, the gross morphology of spermatophytes. For those 
i *Baltey, W. W.—Botanical notebook, a synopsis of lectures and laboratory 
pans in general morphology and systematic botany for use in classes in Brown Uni- 
versity. Second revised edition. 8vo. pp.xi+ 120. Preston & Rounds Co.: Provi- 
dence. 1897, 
