416 SUMMARY OF CUllRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



beiug " outside the limits of the vegetable kingdom." The final sub- 

 division (Protophyta) is remarkable for containing the Diatomaceae, on 

 the theory that they are not " a family derived from the Desmidiaceae by 

 retrogression," but " represent a comparatively small ascent from an 

 archaic type." It will be remembered that Goebel also has placed them 

 in the neighbourhood of the Protophyta. 



The most novel feature of the book is the terminology, in which 

 there is a revolution of three kinds. In the first place, the authors con- 

 sider that " the first requisite . . . after accuracy, is simplicity," and 

 " have, wherever possible, used Anglicised instead of Latin and Greek 

 forms." Thus sporangium becomes " sporange," epidermis " epiderm." 

 Secondly, some entirely new have been coined in place of older terms 

 which the system of the book has required to be discarded ; these 

 describe the structures to which they are applied with such clearness, 

 and so simplify the comparative life-histories of the different groups, 

 that we think they will be heartily welcomed by teacher and student 

 alike. The result of sexual union is called a " sperm," variously modified 

 as " zygosperm," " oosperm," " carposperm," " hypnosperm " (when it 

 undergoes a period of rest), " parthenosperm." Spermatia has given 

 way to " pollinoids." But we must protest against "zoosphere" 

 (pp. 252, 295). 



Thirdly, words the meaning of which has varied with writers who 

 have employed them, have been limited in their meaning and accurately 

 defined. Thus, a " spore " is " any cell produced by ordinary processes 

 of vegetation, and not directly by a union of sexual elements, which 

 becomes detached for the purpose of direct vegetative propagation" 

 " Gonids " (gonidia) has been replaced in the Lichens by " algal cells," 

 but lingers on in the Protophyta ; but as it is there made equivalent to 

 " pseudocysts," it might have been omitted entirely. 



Macrospore was always liable to be mistaken for microspore, and has 

 given way to the more expressive " megaspore." 



There are a few errors which will no doubt be corrected in a future 

 edition. On p. 55, the outer of the two cells produced by the division 

 of the primary cell from which the antherid arises in Lycopodium is 

 called a stigmatic cell. Writers of text-books are, we know, too prone to 

 copy one another's errors. Fig. 26 was first employed by Sachs, and 

 has been borrowed by Goebel, Van Tieghem, and others. It depicts a 

 fertile branch of Selaginella in longitudinal section with the extra- 

 ordinary arrangement of megasporanges represented on one side of the 

 spike, and microsporanges on the other. At the same time we must 

 confess that the present authors state that the megasporanges are 

 confined to the lower sporophylls. We would like to see the figure 

 modified. 



In a handbook where so much trouble has been taken to simplify 

 the terminology, we think it a pity that the word " nucleus " has 

 been retained for the mass of carpospores in the sporocarp of Florideas 



Fig. 132 is Scapania, not Jungermannia Ceralium being the name 

 of an animal on the borders of the animal kingdom, it seems undesirable 

 that the mycetozoid organism figured on p. 404 should bear the same 

 name. But of course a text-book is not the place for establishing new 

 names. 



The method of inserting the authority for a name in brackets 



