290 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ APRIL 
flower is the important organ, that seed plants are the rea/ plants, and fems, 
mosses, and toadstools very much of a side issue ? 
And then we do wish that the pernicious comparison of spores and seeds 
had not been perpetuated. If Professor Bailey had been condemned for tes 
years to eradicate from elementary pupils’ minds the idea that a seed when it 
germinates produces a new plant, and to inculcate a true idea of the relation 
between seed and spore, he would thoroughly appreciate this desire—C. RB 
An organography of the higher plants. 
A WELCOME BOOK is the recently published treatise on the general orgat- 
ography of plants by Professor Dr. Goebel of Munich. No one who has 
given attention to the shifting of the point of view of progressive morpholo- 
gists can fail te observe that the problems in this field are now seen ms 
entirely new light. No longer is there presented to the student the concept 
of an ideal leaf or flower, from which, as from a “ pattern,” those he observes 
Show “deviations” more or less marked, for which no conceivable 1a? 
assigned except the production of “variety in nature.” On the oe 
Set to study the forms of organs as they exist and to seek in external | 
internal conditions as they influence hereditary “tendencies ”’ (alas, singesie 
tance!) the efficient causes for the forms he observes. The old prea 
theory of metamorphosis is giving ground to more realistic views of ened 
ment as we become able to get closer to the plant. It is plain that 
morphology must base itself upon physiology and ecology. i 
But these exacter views are as yet in their formative stage, and gate 
are not specialists are scarcely aware of the departure in eile 7 a 
from the older standpoint. To these, and to the specialist as ge of get 
. ering together of these newer ideas into a compact discussion gn 
service. The present volume is only the first, or general part, pee 
a work which a 
haracter of He 
part we hee 
translate the principal headings : . morphology ae 
Section I. The general segmentation of the plant body: tion of organs 
organography, classification of the organs of seed plants, forma’ mane Pa 
and division of labor among lower plants (thallophytes), sae Verwackswns) 
organs at the growing point and regeneration, coalescence radial x 
and dwarfing. Section [T, Symmetry : positions of wou and i 
dorsiventral shoots, symmetry of leaves, symmetry of flow t different #8 
cences. Section I7, Differences in the formation of organs 4 a 
on 
der Archegoniate? 
dere nett 42. fis 
on 
GoeBEL, K.— Organographie der Pflanzen, insbeson sane 
Samenpflanzen. Erster Teil : Allgemeine Organographie. 
Jena: Gustav Fischer. 1898. AZ. 6. 
