1900] CURRENT LITERATURE 285 
attractive and must appeal not only to the botanical reader but to all who 
have a love for nature. The book abounds in catchy phrases and presents 
plants almost as though they were human, One result of the study of this 
book ought to be a more widespread recognition of plants as living things, 
which have rights to be respected. 
Adverse criticisms upon Minnesota Plant Life are few, and are mainly 
incident to the popularization of a scientific subject. However, it is very 
doubtful whether a book of this character is the place in which to exploit 
such ideas as these: peat bog plants have xerophytic structures so as to pre- 
vent the rapid passage of water through the tissues (p. 436); the inclusion 
of salvinias and bladderworts under the term plankton (p. 443); extreme 
views on the significance of colors, in which blue as well as red is called a 
“warming-up”’ color, so that blue and red flowers are said to come from 
northern climes and yellow flowers from warmer climes, and that spring and 
fall flowers are blue or red, while summer flowers are yellow (p. 426); vernal 
plants are said to have come from the north, and the more leisurely plants 
from the south; sunflowers and their allies are the highest of the plants 
and may form the forests of the future (p. 471). All of these ideas are 
extremely fanciful, if not untrue. They may properly have a place in poetry 
and in the graduate classes in ecology; but the popular mind is already too 
full of such ideas, and it seems a pity that botanists should further encourage 
this kind of thinking by using it in popular works.— HENRY C. COWLES. 
A popular treatise on bacteria. 
IN ONE of the recent volumes of the Science series the author, Mr. 
George Newman, attempts “to set forth a popular scientific statement of our 
present knowledge of bacteria.’ The following are the principal topics dis- 
cussed: the biology of bacteria; the bacteria of water, air, and soil; bacteria 
in milk and other foods; bacteria in fermentation ; immunity and antitoxins ; 
bacteria and disease; and disinfection. This list of subjects is an attractive 
one. The literary style is easy and in many ways the book seems to possess 
those qualifications which will assure for it a ready sale. 
Often a single book is the only treatise upon a given subject that falls i 
the hands of the reader. In such instances the book stands as an “authority es 
in the reader’s mind. Because of this exalted position, which may be reached 
by the popular treatise with or without good reason, such books may properly 
be subjected to even more searching criticism than are more abstruse texts. 
are related to the economy of 
WMAN, GEORGE: Bacteria, especially as they ibe ie. 
3NE 
nature, to industrial processes, and to the public health. 8vo. pp- xiv-+ 3 
ew York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1899. 
