670 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 957 



the Cornell light shine farther still Mrs. 

 Comstock now issues this monumental hand- 

 book, which is so full of meat for nature- 

 study teachers that it almost requires both 

 hands to lift it. A thousand clay-coated 

 pages are too many and too heavy for one vol- 

 ume. The book is already being brought out 

 in two-volume form, animal study filling one 

 volume, and plant and earth and sky study 

 making up the second. 



There is an amazing amount of information, 

 very well digested and arranged, about animal 

 and plant life and earth and sky, in the book. 

 It is an encyclopedia for the nature-study 

 teacher, and it is at the same time a manual 

 of nature-study practise. It contains the 

 facts and, also, precise directions for using 

 them in the most approved way; most ap- 

 proved, that is, by the actual experience, dur- 

 ing the last fifteen years, of Mrs. Comstock, 

 her associates, and the many teachers who 

 have been under her eyes in New York. 



The book is prepared, confessedly, to meet 

 the general condition of untrainedness in na- 

 ture study on the part of school teachers. 

 This lack of training includes a lack of knowl- 

 edge of nature, and hence a lack of knowing 

 what there is to see. Mrs. Comstock's book 

 has for each of its subjects, a " teacher's 

 story " which tells facts, and then a " lesson," 

 based on these facts, for the teacher to use 

 with the children. The lesson includes a 

 " leading thought " which determines the spe- 

 cial observations called for, a note on the spe- 

 cial " methods " to use for the particular les- 

 son, and then a set of " observations " put in 

 question form. In each lesson, too, there are 

 book references for the teacher to make use of, 

 if desired, and usually a bit of quoted verse or 

 prose from some writer who has, of his own 

 initiative had a lesson in seeing, enjoying and 

 loving nature, from the special subject in 

 hand. There are, too, hosts of pictures, most 

 of them very attractive ones made from photo- 

 graphs of live plants and animals, and there 

 is a detailed table of contents, extensive list 

 of books for reference, and a full index. The 

 book is altogether practically made. 



Where nature study has weakened Mrs. 



Comstock's "Handbook" should help it; 

 where it has not yet taken root at all, the 

 " Handbook " should go far toward giving it 

 a beginning. For teachers and parents it 

 should be the book of American nature study. 



V. L. K. 

 Stanford University 



jongman's palaeobotanisch literatur' 

 The third volume of Jongman's paleobotan- 

 ical year-book has just been received in this 

 country. It covers the years 1910 and 1911 

 and includes such titles as were omitted in the 

 enumeration for 1908 and 1909. The ar- 

 rangement is the same as in the two previous 

 volumes, that is to say, the book is divided 

 into two parts. The first part is a bibliog- 

 raphy arranged chronologically by authors, 

 each author's contributions being numbered, 

 starting with number one for the first contri- 

 bution in 1908 or subsequently. The second 

 part, comprising pages 41 to 569, consists of a 

 complete analysis of the literature listed in 

 Part 1, and like it arranged alphabetically. 



The real usefulness of a work of this kind 

 depends entirely upon the skill and thorough- 

 ness with which the literature is digested, and 

 in this respect Jongman's work seems to the 

 writer to be of a much higher grade than that 

 of comparable bibliographic undertakings. 

 All old as well as new species discussed dur- 

 ing the year are included, as well as all geo- 

 logical horizons, anatomical, morphological 

 and phylogenetic contributions; all living spe- 

 cies with which fossil species are compared, as 

 well as purely botanical studies of such living 

 forms as promise to shed light on fossil forms. 

 The work in short is exceedingly useful and 

 botanists and paleobotanists are under a 

 heavy debt of gratitude for the manner in 

 which Dr. Jongman carries through this ex- 

 ceedingly laborious task. It is to be hoped 

 that it will furnish the inspiration to some 

 one to undertake a similar work for paleozool- 



ogy. 



' ' ' Die Palaeobotanisch Literatur, ' ' Dritter 

 Band, Die Erscheinungen der Jalire 1930 und 1911 

 und Naehtrilge fur 1909, Fischer, Jena, 1913, 

 570 pages. 



