66 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [yuty 
polar bodies of the animal egg, though they here continue to divide and give 
rise to rudimentary prothallium.” 
Morphologists of today can hardly accept the statement that the Be 
tube represents a rudimentary male prothallium or sexual generation. 
' The paragraph on fertilization in plants has been considerably improved, 
notably by the account of double fertilization in angiosperms, 
Considerable space is devoted to the reduction of the chromosome in 
plants, but no decision is reached as to whether there is a reducing division 
such as has been described by vom Rath and others.—C. J. CHAMBERLAIN. 
ea ee eee 
MINOR NOTICES. 
' A SECOND EDITION of Wiesner’s Die Rohstoffe des Pflanzenreiches has 
begun to appear from the press of Wilhelm Engelmann.3 Three parts, each 
containing 160 pages, have already been published, and the remaining two 
parts of the first volume are promised before the close of the present year | 
Another volume of the same size will be needed to complete the work, and 
probably its publication will be well advanced within the year. 
S$ compared with the first edition, issued in 1873, the present is com 
pletely rewritten and extended to about double its former size. In the 
the caoutchouc group (43 pp.), the catechu group (14 pp.), and the a 
gl on opium (14 pp.) and aloes (10 pp») 
and Professor H. Molisch on indigo (24 pp.). 
_ This collaboration (the complete list of collaborators, as announces, | 
includes eleven names) puts the different subjects into the hands of specialists i 
and insures prompter completion of the work, a | 
In each section, varied to Suit the special case, the general plan of ay | 
‘ment includes an account of the plants yielding the substance and their dis | 
tribution, the mode of obtaining it, its commercial characteristics, its physical : | 
chemical, and microscopical qualities, and its uses. Both botanical BK - 
technical users, therefore, will find this work a mine of information regarding 
plant products.—C, R B. | 
THE ELEVENTH EDITION | 
issued by Engelmann. 
under the charge of Dr | 
of Prantl's Lehrbuch der Botanik* has de® | 
The revisions of this popular text-book have see E 
- Pax, of Breslau, since the death of the authos | 
3 WIESNER, JULIUS: Di 
schen Rohstofflehre des Pfl 
terte 
€ Rohstoffe des Pflanzenreiches. Versuch einer Ca ) 
anzenreiches. Zweite ginzlich umgearbeitete und er of 
j 5 | 
uflage. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. 1900. Pro lief. 
‘Pax, FERDINAND: Prantl’s Lehrbuch der Botanik. Elfte verbesserte und 4 
vermehrte Auflage. 8y 
® PP. vili-- 455, figs. arg. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmanh | 
1900. M 4.60; geb. 6.10, ig P2718 2 
