September 6, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



311 



The main figure in these stories is Gluskap, 

 their chief deity and lawgiver, who unites witli 

 his divine power and oratory the qualities of a 

 clown, liar and deceiver. Several aboriginal 

 religions have their main deities clothed in this 

 same ragamuifin or Palstaff garb, and instances 

 of these are Manabozho or Ninebush — the great 

 Rabbit — of the Ojibwe, Sinti among the Kio- 

 was and Kmuk4mtch among the Klamaths of 

 Oregon. There is no doubt but that they are 

 deifications of the sun and sky, of the winds 

 and storms, and of the seasons of the year. The 

 name of Gluskap is the usual Abn4ki term for 

 liar and deceh'er, but it is rather difficult to dis- 

 cover his real appellation when Nicolar writes 

 him ' Klos-kur-beh. ' The book shows a re- 

 markable effort on the part of an Indian to ex- 

 plain to the white man his peculiar manners 

 and ways in life and religion, and the face of 

 th,e author, of whom a good portrait is added as 

 frontispiece, shows the earnestness of his pur- 

 poses. The preface is dated Old Town, Maine, 

 but the book was printed at Bangor. 



A. S. G. 



Vergleichende Pflanzenmoi-phologie. Von De. E. 



Dennert. Mit iiber 600 Einzelbildern in 506 



Figuren. 254 Seiten. Verlagsbuch handlung 



von J. J. Webee, Leipzig, 1894. 



In giving a new science text-book to the 

 world, an author ought to have something valu- 

 able to present, in order to fix the attention of 

 the scientific public. Dr. Dennert has at- 

 tempted to do this, and has succeeded in put- 

 ting in a clear and forcible way the principles of 

 vegetal morphology. Dr. Dennert in his com- 

 parative outline does not claim to have made 

 any new departure, but he wishes to give, the 

 laity the fundamental tenets of morphological 

 botany. He hopes that the book may prove a 

 useful repertory to students who desire a com- 

 pendium on the comparative macroscopic struc- 

 ture of plants. 



The book puts in a concise and comprehensive 

 form the essentials of vegetable morphology. 

 Most of the figures are good and new, and give 

 the tyro a fair pictorial representation of a 

 variety of interesting plant structures. The 

 arrangement is, as it should be, scientifically 

 logical. Starting with the cell as the unit of 



plant life, he unfolds in a short chapter the 

 principal points of vegetable histology. The 

 sections on root, stem and leaf commend them- 

 selves for clearness and lucidity. Nothing 

 more could be desired for beginners than the 

 sketch of the leaf presented in Section III. of 

 the book. After a brief summary of the devel- 

 opment of leaf forms, he follows with a clear 

 exposition of leaf morphology by treating the 

 subject under the following categories.* Coty- 

 ledonary leaves (keim-blatter), scale leaves, es- 

 pecially on rhizomes (nieder-bliitter), foliage 

 leaves (laub-blatter) with stipules (neben-blat- 

 ter), bractsc (hoch-blatter, deck-blatter) and 

 floral leaves (bliiten-blatter). By leaf arrange- 

 ment, as distinguished from phyllotaxy or leaf 

 situation, Dr. Dennert would mean the various 

 adaptive positions of the leaf with respect to 

 light, moisture, heat, as also leaf mosaics. The 

 interesting features of metamorphosed leaves, 

 leaf traps, leaf pitchers, leaf thorns and fleshy 

 leaves receive due consideration, as also hetero- 

 phylly as represented in Ranunculus aquatalis 

 and Platycerium WalUnkii. 



The development, or growth of the leaf from 

 the primordial leaf (primordial blatt) and its 

 parts, the embryological leaf base (blatt grund), 

 and the embryological leaf blade (ober-blatt), 

 presented in closing the discussion of leaves, 

 helps to clear up any difficulty which the student 

 may have as to the morphological conception 

 of a leaf, especially as to the nature of stipules. 



Dr. Dennert has attempted to give in one 

 hundred pages (134-234) the morphology and 

 ' biology ' of the flower and fruit, and has, 

 therefore, only succeeded in giving a mere out- 

 line of this topic of absorbing interest. One 

 might wish that the author had enlarged 

 upon the adaptive arrangements of flowers in 

 relation to insect visitation, but Dr. Dennert 

 doubtless left this subject, wisely, for exposition 

 by the individual teacher. 



The book, however, as a whole, is to be com- 

 mended to those who desire to obtain in a short 

 time a general knowledge of plant morphology. 

 John W. Haeshbergee. 



University of Pennsylvania. 



* The German terms are given, because there seems 

 to be considerable confusion among students, as to 

 the exact English equivalents. 



