562 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 566. 



the case of fresh-water fishes, but with 

 marine fishes there is greater freedom of 

 migration, the species are perhaps largely 

 of more ancient origin and intergrading 

 forms are much more rarely recognized.. 



The degree of fulness and accuracy in 

 the recognition of subspecies marks the 

 degree of progress in any branch of sys- 

 tematic or of faunal zoology and botany. 

 It is the tyro who, as Linngeus^ suggests, 

 sees the problems of geographical distribu- 

 tion in the large. It is the master who 

 follows step by step the footprints of the 

 Creator in the molding and distribution of 

 life. David Starr Jordan. 



Stanford Univeesity. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



The^ Waterlilies : A Monograph of the Genus 

 Nymphaea. By Henry S. Conard, Senior 

 Harrison Fellow in Botany, University of 

 Pennsylvania. Published by the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington. 1905. Pp. 

 xiii + 279. 4to, 30 plates and 82 figures 

 in the text. 



This thick volume, which is listed as ' Pub- 

 lication No. 4 ' of the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington, appeared several months ago, 

 and attracted immediate attention on account 

 of its excellence of paper, type, presswork and 

 plates. In the style of its publications the 

 institution is setting a high standard which 

 can not but favorably affect scientific publica- 

 tion throughout the country. The plates are 

 from drawings (some colored) and photo- 

 graphs, which have been very faithfully repro- 

 duced. The text-figures, while largely out- 

 lines, are also well done, adding greatly to the 

 value of the work. 



Turning now to the text, we find a chapter 

 given to a historical sketch, followed by an- 

 other devoted to structure, still another to 

 development, one to physiology. The central 

 chapter devoted to taxonomy is the longest 

 and most important, and this is followed by 

 brief discussions of distribution, hybrids and 



- " Tyro fit classes : magister fit species." 



garden varieties, culture and uses and an ex- 

 tended bibliography. From the preface we 

 learn that ' nothing like a complete synopsis 

 of the waterlilies has hitherto been put before 

 the English-speaking world,' and indeed it 

 appears that it is more than eighty years since 

 the last complete treatment in any language, 

 i. e., De Candolle's in the 'Prodromus' (1824). 

 The present work is the result of studies 

 undertaken by the author in the botanical 

 garden and laboratories of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, supplemented by living and 

 preserved specimens and material from many 

 sources, including that in the herbaria in Kew, 

 British Museum, Linnean Society, Berlin, 

 Munich, etc. 



It would be pleasant to summarize, or quote 

 ,from the historical chapter in which many 

 interesting facts are brought together in very 

 readable form. Likewise there is much of 

 interest and importance in the chapter on 

 structure, which includes gross and minute 

 anatomy, and in the next chapter on the physi- 

 ology of the plants (including a discussion of 

 the cause of the opening and closing of the 

 fiowers), but there is no space here for this. 

 The reader is recommended to peruse the in- 

 teresting chapters for himself. 



The chapter on taxonomy is the one, of most 

 general interest to the ordinary reader. The 

 author prefers the name Nymphaea to Castalia 

 for the genus, reserving the latter for one of 

 the subgenera. The species are arranged un- 

 der two principal groups, viz., (I.) Nymphaeae 

 Aprocarpiae (with carpels free from one an- 

 other at the sides) and (II.) Nymphaeae Syn- 

 carpiae (with carpels completely fused with 

 one another at the sides). Two subgenera are 

 recognized in the first group, Anecphya, with 

 but one species, N. gigantea (Australian), 

 and Brachyceras, with twelve species, N. ele- 

 gans (Texas and Mexico), N. ampla (tropical 

 and subtropical America) N. flavo-virens 

 (probably Mexican), N. stellata (southeast 

 Asia), iV^. coerulea (Africa), N. micrantha 

 (West Africa), N. heudelotii (Africa), N. 

 .ovaUfolia (East Africa), N. calliantha (Af- 

 rica), N. capensis (South Africa), N. sulfurea 

 (Africa), and N. stahlmannii (Africa). In 

 the second group the subgenus Castalia in- 



