March 28, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



493 



which literally means " wood-ears " or " tree 

 ears," the name, no doubt, being suggested by 

 the shape of the fungus. It is used when 

 young and tender and is prepared by boiling. 

 Mr. Gilmore's informant was a man probably 

 more than sixty years of age, speaking only 

 the Dakota language, a man of more than 

 average intelligence, a judge in the Indian 

 court of the Wakpamni district of Pine Eidge 

 Indian Reservation. He is of the Ogallala 

 tribe of the Teton Dakotas. 



AN EVERYDAY BOTANICAL MANUAL 



There is evidently no good reason in these 

 days for ignorance concerning the names and 

 general classification of at least the higher 

 plants, if we may judge from the attempts 

 that are made by writers and publishers to 

 supply popular manuals and handbooks. 

 Some of those published in the past have not 

 had much more to commend them than the 

 wish on the part of the writer to help people 

 who were more ignorant than he concerning 

 the plants of some more or less vaguely de- 

 fined area of North America. And yet the 

 poorest of these had some value, and no doubt 

 helped many people who could not have been 

 induced to buy a better book. ISTo doubt bot- 

 anists have sometimes been unduly impatient 

 with books of this description, while the non- 

 botanical public has managed to get some of 

 the information about plants which it craved, 

 and which it could not find in the more ac- 

 curate scientific publications. 



But these merely tolerant words need not be 

 used in regard to Dr. C. A. Darling's " Hand- 

 hook of the Wild and Cultivated Flowering 

 Plants," which made its appearance the latter 

 part of 1912. The preface states that the ob- 

 ject of the book is " to furnish a convenient 

 and easy means of determining the wild and 

 cultivated flowering plants found in the 

 East." In carrying out this plan the author 

 has used dichotomous keys of a kind so 

 easily followed that with proper care one need 

 not " run ofl^ the track " before finding the 

 name of his plant, in its proper place in its 

 family, order, subclass and class. A hint is 

 given as to the proper pronunciation of the 



scientific name when found, and an English 

 name is provided for every species. A good 

 glossary and (single) index closes this handy 

 little book of 264 small octavo pages. 



If this little book can find its way into the 

 hands of the persons for whom it has been 

 prepared it will serve a most useful purpose, 

 and this part of the public may well feel in- 

 debted to the author who in addition to his 

 duties as an instructor in botany in Colum- 

 bia University has taken upon himself the 

 very considerable labor of writing and pub- 

 lishing this little book. 



THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS 



One of the most helpful books for the be- 

 ginner in philosophical science is Professor 

 D. H. Campbell's "Plant Life and Evolu- 

 tion," in Holt's American Nature Series, 

 which appeared some months ago. It will be 

 remembered that a dozen or so years ago the 

 same author brought out a book entitled " Lec- 

 tures on the Evolution of Plants," in which 

 he emphasized the structural side of his topic. 

 The book now under consideration, while con- 

 siderably less technical, is really a supplement 

 to the earlier work. That book arranged plant 

 structures in evolutionary sequence; this one 

 accounts for the structures, and their changes 

 by a discussion of the factors concerned. The 

 earlier book was structural, this one is philo- 

 sophical. The first one appealed primarily to 

 the botanist, while this one will appeal to a 

 much wider circle of readers, in proof of 

 which we may cite some of the chapter head- 

 ings : e. g., factors in evolution ; the origin of 

 land plants; environment and adaptation; 

 the problem of plant distribution; the human 

 factor in plant evolution; the origin of spe- 

 cies, etc. 



Charles E. Besset 



The Univeesitt of Nebraska 



SPECIAL ABTICLES 



supplementary note on the significance of 

 variety tests 



Since the appearance in Science' of a note 

 " On the Significance of Variety Tests," Dur- 



»N. S., 36: 318-320, 1912. 



