782 
In an introductory chapter the author dis- 
cusses his problem in such manner as to help 
us to see it from his point of view, starting 
with the remark that “ ecology is a science in 
its beginnings.” A little later he says “nor 
is it possible as yet to mark out its limits, for 
it overlaps to a greater or less degree every 
other field of biology and of physiography 
and geology as well.” In spite of these difii- 
culties he ventures a definition of ecology as 
“that phase of biology that endeavors to ex- 
plain the origin, variation and réle of plant 
or animal structures, and the origin and 
variation of plant or animal associations.” 
This introductory chapter ought in fact to be 
very carefully read and reread by the student 
who wishes to know what it is that Dr. Cowles 
is putting before him under the name “ ecol- 
ogy,” for it will be evident very early in the 
use of the book that it is not at.all like those 
that have preceded it, which means that this 
“eeology” is not the “ecology” of many 
other authors. 
The general plan of the book may be seen 
in an enumeration of the contents of the 
eight chapters, as follows: (I.) Roots and 
Rhizoids; (1I.) Leaves; (III.) Stems; (IV.) 
Saprophytisms. and Symbiosis; (V.) Repro- 
duction and Dispersal; (VI.) Germination; 
(VII.) Plant Associations; (VIII.) Adapta- 
tion. If now the student will read carefully 
any of these chapters he will find that they 
deal almost entirely with structure and be- 
havior, and it appears to be the author’s de- 
liberate purpose to present these as the ma- 
terial upon which the beginner in ecology is 
to work. That is, Dr. Cowles bases ecology 
upon morphology and physiology, just as some 
of us have been insisting for these past years 
during which a certain type of ecologists were 
leading wholly unprepared young people into 
hazy observations in the field. 
It is noticeable that the author has pretty 
fully eliminated teleology, which had become 
so conspicuous in the ecological writings of 
some botanists, reminding one in extreme 
cases of the botany of the early part of the 
nineteenth century. This revival of teleology 
by the younger generation was not a little 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 907 
disquieting to the older botanists, who rightly 
felt that it was a backward step in the science 
to return to a view or doctrine that had only 
so recently been abandoned. In Dr. Cowles’s 
book there is no conscious leaning toward 
teleology, and for this scientific men owe him 
_a debt of gratitude. 
In like manner the author has subordinated 
the geographical phases of the subject, giving 
some portions scant notice. He has chosen to 
emphasize the plant individually, rather tham 
the mass of individuals constituting a partic- 
ular community of plants. This no doubt 
contributes to clearness and definiteness and 
there can be no question that the students who 
approach ecological studies from this side and 
in this manner will have much more lucid 
notions on the subject than those who were 
taken directly into the field for the study of 
“Vegetation” and “formations.” It will be 
interesting to see what effect this presentation 
of ecology will have upon its study in high 
schools and the smaller colleges, where too 
often it had degenerated into vapid lectures. 
on the general aspects of the vegetational 
landscape much after the fashion of those 
formerly given to young ladies who “took 
botany ” in the old-time female seminaries of 
a century ago. 
One of the most helpful and suggestive 
chapters is that on Saphrophytism and Sym- 
biosis (IV.), dealing as it does with all phases: 
of the structural and physiological relation of 
the two organisms concerned. The treatment 
here is clear, and well calculated to lay a solid 
foundation in the mind of the beginner. 
In the fifth chapter (Reproduction and Dis- 
persal), while by far the greatest attention is: 
given to these phenomena in the flowering 
plants, the subject is introduced by twenty 
pages on the behavior of the lower plants, the 
author’s idea evidently being that even lower 
plants are worth while ecologically, especially 
as they are simpler and more easily under- 
stood. The treatment throughout the chapter 
has an air of freshness that is gratifying, 
much of the matter having been developed by 
the author in connection with his class work. 
The short chapter on plant associations, 
