214 BOTANICAL GAZETTE | MARCH 
mary purpose was to provide a compact book which would contain a summary 
of useful and scientific information about the plants to be ‘“‘met with in a 
botanical garden or museum, or in the field.” The second volume carries out 
this idea, and is a regular plant dictionary, containing a vast fund of informa- 
tion concerning the morphology, taxonomy, ecology, economic value, etc., Of 
lants, arranged in the alphabetical order of their Latin names. All of the 
classes, cohorts, and families are included, and several thousand genera, the 
more important divisions being treated fully. The second volume, however, 
necessitated the first, which is really a brief text-book. The topics treated, | 
as well as the motive of their treatment is suggested by the subjects of the 
four chapters, which are as follows: outlines of the general morphology and 
_ natural history of phanerogams and ferns; variation, evolution, classification ; 
forms of vegetation, geographical distribution of plants, etc. ; economic bot- 
any. A cursory examination of the pages shows that the author has brought 
together the most recent views upon these various subjects, treating them in 
a broadly philosophical yet simple way. In the chapter upon forms of vege- 
tation and geographical distribution the author has used the same method of 
treatment as that of Warming in his Ecological plant geography, but had devel- 
oped it independently. From our point of view the first volume is more 
important than the more extensive and far more laborious second volume, for 
the latter is a compiled dictionary, exceedingly useful, but the former isa well 
presented suggestion of a more rational style of text-book. The work is one 
of the Cambridge Natural Science Manuals.— J. M. C. 
REPRODUCTION may be reckoned as the last and highest of the life-phe- 
nomena of any organism, marking the climax of its development and often 
the beginning of its decline. It is no wonder, therefore, that reproduction 
has been much studied, and that classification is so largely based on its struc- 
tures and phenomena. But most of this study has been devoted to an accumu- 
lation of facts regarding the morphology of the organs and the direct method 
of its accomplishment. Comparatively little is yet known of the pirat 8 
raat and almost vigor of the external conditions by which it 
"Using th ie Linke organisms asa starting point, Dr. can Klebs, professor 
| nine e years of labor, in making some — ae has been along the line 
of d s under which reproductive bodies, both spores | 
| and gametes, ‘are formed. 
_ Enough has been accomplished ee the author to ) plan a wot “Ueber die 
Zul =F Orga 
: 
ca 
ia 
: pare, der Protobionten,” of 
