624 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No, 381. 



ever, forgets to note one feature of German 

 taxonomic methods altogether too common in 

 recent monographic work in his own country, 

 and one that more than once has led him into 

 minor errors that could easily have been 

 avoided. In preparing his monograph, Giesen- 

 hagen had access to a loan for a short time of 

 the herbarium materials from Berlin, which is 

 unquestionably the finest Continental collec- 

 tion, and also had access to the types of 

 Blume's Javan ferns from the Museum at Ley- 

 den, but the richest collection of all in this and 

 every other genus of ferns, namely, that at 

 Kew, England, the author never consulted. In 

 fact, German monographers rarely consult this 

 magnificent collection, and as a consequence 

 of this neglect, go on producing monographs 

 which contain either avoidable errors or 

 lamentable omissions. To cite an instance 

 from the present case, the English botanists 

 had confused a common Indian fern with one 

 of Blume's Javan species, of course without 

 having seen Blume's plant, for English botan- 

 ists do not always take the trouble to gather 

 evidence if it involves crossing the English 

 Channel to get it. Our present author, after 

 an examination of Blume's type finds the In- 

 dian plant something very different, as might 

 have been expected, and in spite of the fact 

 that the Indian plant already had been named 

 independently by other English botanists com- 

 mencing with Wallich, proceeds at once to 

 name it 'Niphoholus Mannii n. sp.' This is 

 surely an economical method of procedure — 

 in fact saves the time and money necessary 

 to visit Kew — but as a question of ethics or 

 scientific accuracy it is not to be commended 

 in a formal monograph. Wallich's name 

 must hold for this plant unless there should 

 prove to be an earlier one. 



In short the princijDal criticisms that can be 

 offered to the work in hand are those that bear 

 on the lack of accuracy in citation and no- 

 menclature and yet these imperfections mar an 

 otherwise admirable volume. In citing speci- 

 mens examined the author often uses an 

 entire page and sometimes two pages in need- 

 lessly quoting the entire label from the her- 

 barium sheet — data important in their proper 

 place, but in even the more extended series 



here given "capable of being condensed and 

 better classified into ten lines in so far as they 

 give information respecting geographic dis- 

 tribution. On the other hand icoiies are 

 rarely cited and in some cases the reader is in 

 doubt both as to the original author of the 

 species described and its type locality. Last 

 of all the name Niphoholus is itself untenable. 

 The author, working under the old conception 

 that a genus is a description or a definition 

 instead of a group of related species, passes 

 over Desvaux's genus Cyclophorus (1811) be- 

 cause neither in his generic description nor in 

 those of its six species which the present au- 

 thor admits 'alle echte Niphoholi sint' does 

 Desvaux mention the peculiar vestiture which 

 characterizes the members as now under- 

 stood. Because of this and because Kaulfuss 

 in 1824 had substituted Niphoholus for Cyclo- 

 phorus, since the latter name had been used 

 for a genus of shells, our present author un- 

 fortunately uses the latter name, which in the 

 rational and progressive system now in use 

 in biological nomenclature cannot stand. It 

 is unfortunate that so complete a monograph 

 should be lacking in the minor essentials of 

 modern scientific accuracy. 



LuciEN M. Underwood. 



T!ie Practical Methods of Organic Chemistry. 

 By LuDwiG Gattermann, Ph.D., Professor 

 in the University of Ereiburg. With 

 numerous illustrations. Translated by 

 William B. Schober, Ph.D., Instructor in 

 Organic Chemistry in Lehigh University. 

 Authorized translation. The second Amer- 

 ican from the fourth German edition. New 

 York, The Macmillan Company. 1901. 

 Pp. 359. 



Gattermann's book is favorably known in 

 organic laboratories. It consists of a brief 

 general part dealing with analytical opera- 

 tions and laboratory methods, and a special 

 part of organic preparations. To quote, 'To 

 each preparation are added general observa- 

 tions which relate to the character and gen- 

 eral significance of the reaction carried out 

 in practice.' This feature is a very great help 

 to the student. 



This edition includes a number of new prep- 



