CURRENT LITERATURE 
BOOK REVIEWS. a 
An elementary botany. 
THE TASK of writing an elementary text-book that shall be satisfactory 
from the pedagogical as well as the scientific point of view is notaneasy 
one, and the result is at best but a compromise in which the instructional 
necessities should predominate in the selection of material for presentation. 
With these facts at hand it must be acknowledged that itis well-nigh 
hopeless to attempt to produce a manual which shall meet the conditions 
existing in any great number of schools. The last few years have seen 
appearance of many such books in America, which met with no favor outside 
of the sphere of the personal influence of the author. : 
The recent effort by Mr. Groom" deserves attention. The book is ane 
for students not furnished with compound microscopes and attendant facilities 
which are both needless and harmful to young beginners. The author's 
€xaminer in botany to Oxford University, and has presumably selected the 4 
material for his book with reference to the requirements of English schools. a 
The contents include general morphology, classification of the angiospem™ — 
and physiology. 
About one hundred pages are devoted to the segmentation and -— 7 
ment of the root and shoot, together with the mechanism of mwecee™ 
large proportion of this space is devoted to definitions of morphological ae 
in which it is scarcely necessary to say that accuracy and conciseness are oot 
shown. The subjects of pollination, fertilization, and seed dispersal are 
sensibly treated here than in any elementary text which has yet ake ot 
Omission of consideration of lower forms is, of course, t be an 
granted. 
Under classification, descriptions of thirty important oF common fai 
are orn 
given. en so written tit 
that 
has be mock 
wil tee 
Ree eee 
Preparation of more advanced manuals. The principles of | 
: figs. 250+ Lo aie : 
*GROoM, Percy,—Elements of Botany. 16mo. pP- x + 252. Aes 50 oo 
New York: George Bell & Sons, 1898. 35. 6d. . are 
282 ey, 
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