CURRENT LITERATURE, 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
Flowering plants and ferns.: 
Mr. J. C. Wixuis has done a wise thing in organizing his manual in a single 
volume. It is a book of general reference for those interested in learning some- 
thing of the plants they meet in a botanical garden or museum, or in the field. 
In this edition much new material has been incorporated, especially in connection 
with those subjects that have had large recent development. The range of sub- 
jects covered is extraordinary, for the book gives the outlines of morphology, 
physiology, ecology, classification, geographical distribution, and the economic uses 
of vascular plants, besides containing ‘‘a dictionary in which the whole of the 
families and the important genera of flowering plants and ferns are dealt with.” 
It would seem impossible for one man to present such a range of subjects 
with any uniformity. He is almost sure to enlarge those he knows best at the 
expense of those with which he is the least familiar. For example, in this volume, 
while the older morphology with its copious terminology has full swing, the 
modern morphology has a scant showing and is presented in such a way ue 
bring no clear conception to the uninstructed. The alternation of generations 
and the various important evolutionary lines can be apprehended clearly only 
as they are approached by way of the lower plants. We have never seen 4! 
special gain in including these subjects in a book for the general reader dealing 
only with the vascular plants. If. the statements are understood, they are not 
exact; and if they are exact, they cannot be understood. - ; 
These subjects, however, are very minor matters in the book, while or 
ment of geographical distribution, forms of vegetation, and plant associations * 
extended and full of information. Mr. Willis seems to be more than pee 
else an ecologist, and his contact with various plant conditions has been unt 
As a consequence, this part of this book has all the flavor of personal Ge 
The larger part of the volume is devoted to the presentation of the it 
cohorts, orders, and chief genera,” and is unique in the alphabetical ‘ 
and in the amount and kind of information one can find about plants concerns 
which he may be curious. iding that 
The book will certainly be of great use as a reference book in Pp os is 
kind of information for which it really stands, and the only sah pare not 
directed against its claim to include great regions of botany for which it 
or MO C.. 
stand.— 
+ WiLus, J. C., A manual and dic ary Ps g pl + and ferns. a 
sro revised and rearranged in one volume. Cambridge Biological S 
“+670. Cambridge: The University Press. 1904. 
220 
