28 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 784 



and America, the most conspicuous is the 

 Phylloxera vastatrix Plan, of the grape which 

 was introduced from America and has proved 

 so destructive to the vineyards of Europe. 



The work also includes a hibliographical 

 index of nearly 400 authors and aboiit 1,200 

 titles; index tables giving the orders, families, 

 genera and species of the organisms which 

 cause the cecidia ; and the families, genera 

 and species of the host plants. 



In looking over the bibliographical index 

 our attention is attracted to the names of a 

 few authors who have also contributed to our 

 knowledge of American ceeidology, especially 

 that of C. E. von Osten-Sacken, who contrib- 

 uted far more to the American than to the 

 European literature. 



Every one in America who has attempted 

 a study of ceeidology has experienced great 

 difficulty due to the literature being so in- 

 volved with other phases of biology, especially 

 entomology, and the author in his preface 

 states that this is also true in Europe and this 

 fact has led to his undertaking this important 

 work. 



It will undoubtedly prove most useful not 

 only for the cecidologist, but for the botanists 

 and the entomologists. In fact, the author 

 expresses the hope that the work will be of 

 service to the entomologists, the botanists, the 

 foresters and the agriculturists. The author 

 and his fellow scientists are to be congratu- 

 lated upon the excellency and usefulness of 

 this work. A most excellent companion piece 

 to this would be a similar work on the myco- 

 cecidies. 



Ceeidology is one of the youngest of the 

 biological sciences in both Europe and Amer- 

 ica, but has attracted a great deal more atten- 

 tion in Europe than in this covmtry. The 

 greater part of the work has been done by the 

 entomologists, who have naturally been more 

 interested in the insects than in the cecidia. 

 However, the subject is now attracting the at- 

 tention of the botanists, who are finding it a 

 fruitful field from the standpoint of plant 

 pathology and plant physiology. There are at 

 the present time a number of young workers 

 who are taking up this study and in due time 



we may expect similar productions in this 

 country. Mel T. Cook 



Delaware Ageicultueal 

 ExPEBiMENT Station, 

 Newaek, Del. 



Lehrbuch der Pharmahognosie. Von Dr. 

 George Kaesten, Professor an der Univer- 

 sitat Halle, und Dr. Friedrich Oltmanns, 

 Professor an der Universitat Freiburg I. B. 

 Zweite voUstandig umgearbeitete Auflage 

 von G. Karstens Lehrbuch der Pharmakog- 

 nosie. Mit 512 zum Teil farbigen Abbil- 

 dungen im Text. Jena, Gustav Fischer. 

 1909. 



Pharmacognosy is a comparatively new 

 branch of botanical science, and text-books on 

 the subject are very welcome, particularly if 

 they present a new point of view. In this 

 country the so-called works on materia medica, 

 on which the students of pharmacy and medi- 

 cine formerly relied for their knowledge of 

 vegetable drugs, are being replaced by works 

 on pharmacognosy, on the one hand, and 

 works on pharmacology on the other. In 

 other words, these two divisions can no longer 

 be covered by a single text or treated with 

 authority by the same author. Thus, pharma- 

 cognosy in the modern acceptation of the term 

 deals with the natural origin of vegetable and 

 animal drugs, their physical and morpholog- 

 ical characters, and the chemical nature of 

 their constituents, while pharmacology deals 

 with the action of their constituents and 

 preparations on the animal organism, and 

 hence to this latter division properly belongs 

 the consideration of therapeutic properties 

 and doses. It is to the credit of German 

 scientists and teachers that they earlier dif- 

 ferentiated these subjects than we in this 

 country. 



The work at hand treats of the vegetable 

 drugs exclusively, but, like most of the Ger- 

 man works on this subject intended for the 

 use of students, treats only of a limited num- 

 ber of the drugs, these being more or less 

 typical of the various classes. Professor Olt- 

 manns has written the chapters dealing with 

 the cryptogamic drugs, rhizomes, roots, tubers, 



