464 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
structure of the sperms of the pteridophytes and the sexual processes in Onoclea, 
Cycas, Zamia, Ginkgo, Pinus, and for the angiosperms Helleborus and Lilium. 
Among these higher forms every month is bringing forth important papers and 
there are no cytological topics in which the ground has so frequently shifted and 
is still so unstable as that treating the events and significance of synapsis and 
heterotypic mitosis and the behavior of chromosomes during reduction and fer- 
ilization. 
The work deserves special mention for its clear exposition of the chief theories 
of STRASBURGER on subjects associated with sexual reproduction. It is the 
most complete account of the speculations of this master published in English 
and should be very welcome to the general reader. 
The book is very fully illustrated and the figures excellent, but they would 
have been even clearer if printed on a paper with a smoother surface.—B. M. 
Davis. 
Gufr1N? has brought together in a very useful way for French readers our 
information in reference to fertilization and associated phenomena in seed- 
plants. Spermatogenesis, oogenesis, and fertilization in angiosperms are first 
presented; and the same topics are taken up under gymnosperms, the Cycadales, 
Coniferales, and Gnetales being considered separately. In each case a brief 
historical résumé is given, and the references to recent bibliography are fairly 
complete, surprisingly so in the case of American publications. ‘There are numer- 
ous illustrations, and the orderly presentation of topics makes the work very 
easy to consult. Of special interest in a work issued from GuIGNARD’s laboratory 
is the full presentation of “double fertilization.’ Brief concluding chapters 
deal with a comparison of angiosperms and gymnosperms as to the origin and 
development of the reproductive structures and the phenomena of fertilization, 
a comparison of the phenomena of fertilization in plants and animals, and a 
general interpretation of the phenomena of fertilization. The work is a compact 
organization of current knowledge, and should be of great service in calling the 
attention of French botanists to the more modern points of view in connection 
with seed-plants.—J. M. C. 
Botany among the ancient Greeks. 
WHILE ALL botanists have heard of THEopHrastus, and know that he wrote 
a treatise on plants, it is safe to assume that only a few have taken the time to 
read him in the original. We have had translations of his ‘Ieropla: rdv purGr, 
but now for the first time there is before us a critical study of this work, as well 
as the works of other Greek and Roman writers.’ It appears that the stimulus 
for the ‘Ieropiae was largely given by the reports brought back from India by 
those who accompanied Alexander the Great upon his journey of conquest. 
? GuErIN, Paut, Les connaissances gop sur . bragscays chez les Phané- 
Trogames. pp. vii+160. Paris: A. Joanin et Cie. 1904 
3 Brerzt, Huco, Botanische ee Le tiie 8vo. pp. xii+412- 
figs. 11. maps 4. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. 1903. M 12. 
