418 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ DECEMBER 
As compared with the second edition, a somewhat fuller discussion is given 
to diseases caused by fungi as a whole, and particularly to Ustilaginee and 
Uredineze. The injuries caused by lightning are much more extensively 
treated than in the previous edition, being given over fourteen pages and 
twenty-six figures instead of two pages and no figures. The number of 
figures in the book as a whole has been more than doubled, many being 
reproductions of photographs to show the habit of certain diseases, while 
others are detailed drawings made by the author. The colored plate which 
appeared in the first edition has been retained. In view of the great activity 
shown in recent years in the study and description of bacterial diseases of 
plants it seems peculiar to find only two pages devoted to this important 
subject. Practically the same introductory remarks are given as in the second 
edition, to the effect that bacterial diseases of plants are not and cannot be 
numerous in the nature of things, owing to the firm cellulose walls and acid 
sap characteristic of most plants. But five bacterial diseases are mentioned, 
two being considered as not yet proved. They are the yellow rot of the 
hyacinth, the wet rot of the potato, pear blight, and more doubtfully sor- 
ghum blight, and the twig gall of the olive. It seems strange that no men- 
tion is made of several other economically very important bacterial diseases 
which have been so carefully and fully described by European and American 
investigators. A very noticeable feature is the fact that except for a few 
citations in the introduction to general works, all the publications cited are 
those by the author himself. He explains this as being done to make these 
publications more available, since they are scattered through numerous peri- 
odicals, etc. There is no need, he believes, for a general bibliography in 
such a work, ; 
The typography is good, and the figures are mostly excellent. The only 
typographical error noted is in the legend to figure 127, where the name Cryp- 
tospora is printed instead of Calyptospora. As a whole the book is likely to 
prove valuable, not as a general work, however, but rather as a text-book of 
diseases of trees —Ernst A. BESSEY. 
MINOR NOTICES. 
HERMAN B. Dorner (Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. 1899: 116-129) has investi- 
gated the resin ducts and strengthening cells of the leaves of six species of 
Abies, and five of Picea, and has discovered differences which enable him to 
distinguish them. The paper contains text cuts showing the varying struct- 
ures.—J. M. C. 
THE LAST NUMBER of the /cones Florae Japonicae bears the date Septet 
ber 1, 1900, and is no, 8 of the spermatophyte and pteridophyte series, edited 
by T. Makino of the Imperial University at Tokyd. The present number 
contains illustrations of species of Davallia, Aldrovanda, Stigmatodactylus, 
and Saccolabium.—J. M. C, 
