December 2, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



797 



part protoplasm at work is the theme, and the 

 various phenomena of cell-mecbanics and cell- 

 physiology are succinctly and skilfully de- 

 scribed. Here are to be found the discussions 

 of osmose, turgescence, root-pressure, transpira- 

 tion, movement of liquids, diffusion, respira- 

 tion, photosynthesis, growth and irritability, 

 for all of which the splendid presentative abili- 

 ties of the author are elicited. From the almost 

 unlimited store of information to be had upon 

 these subjects. Professor Atkinson has wisely 

 selected, carefully condensed and tactfully 

 eliminated so that his finished chapters bear the 

 testimony to his unusual powers of criticism and 

 compilation. Here and there original material 

 is included, but always with modesty, and not at 

 all in the far too common spirit which deems 

 all personal results of value above any of the 

 results of others. 



In the chapters on morphology the same fine 

 selective instinct is displayed and the com- 

 pleted lessons, extending over a representative 

 series from the pond-scums to the Hawkweeds, 

 are quite the best of their sort that have come 

 under the observation of the reviewer. They are 

 more than a bare enumeration of laboratory 

 processes, more than a story about the plants 

 and their life histories. , They are a breathing, 

 vital presentation of the principal matters of in- 

 terest, structural, developmental and adapta- 

 tional, which the young student should know 

 and should remember. In the chapter on ferns 

 the author has embodied many results of his 

 own well-known and beautiful researches and, 

 as elsewhere, has contrived always to use illus- 

 trations that illustrate. Figs. 231 and 232 being 

 the only ones that can be described as inartis- 

 tic, while all are scientifically adequate. The 

 selection of types for study among flowering 

 plants is particularly happy, and such varieties 

 as can be obtained generally over at least the 

 northern United States are emphasized. 



The chapters on ecology are peculiarly in- 

 teresting to the reviewer, since the iield is one 

 that he has attempted to cultivate, and in 

 them many of his own results are included. 

 Perhaps even under these circumstances he will 

 be pardoned for speaking with something akin to 

 enthusiasm, for certainly not even in Kerner or 

 Warming has such a charming presentation 



of the subject been accomplished. The matter 

 is classified under the following chapter head- 

 ings : winter buds, growth of woody shoots, 

 leaf arrangement, seedlings, further studies in 

 nutrition, dimorphism of ferns, formation of 

 early spring flowers, heterospory, pollination, 

 seed distribution, struggle for occupation of 

 land, soil formation in rocky regions and in 

 moors, zonal distribution of plants, plant com- 

 munities, seasonal changes, adaptation of plants 

 to climate. All of the chapters are finely 

 illustrated with original figures in similigrav- 

 ure, including a number that are destined to 

 become classic, as, for example, Fig. 440 of 

 the fairy ring fungus. Fig. 484 of an atoll moor 

 and Fig. 503 of the walking-fern. Suchaseries 

 of chapters ought to renew the youth of the 

 driest botanical pedagogue that ever droned 

 through his Gray's Manual by the aid of an 

 'artificial key,' and it ought to do more for 

 botanical instruction in the schools of America 

 than has been done by any book since Bessey's 

 Botany. 



With so muchof goodtosayabout Professor At- 

 kinson's ' Elementary Botany' it would be a pity 

 to add more than the merest soupijon of unfavor- 

 able comment. A few things might have been 

 done better. Generic names have, no doubt, as 

 much right to their capital letters as have the 

 honored names of the author and publishers: 

 ' elementary botany by g. f. atkiuson, published 

 by henry holt and co.' looks absurd and so does 

 the sentence ' comparison of selaginella and 

 isoetes with the ferns ' — at least to the eyes of 

 the reviewer. It is a blunder to speak about 

 the roofs of Corallorhiza, for the coral-root orchid 

 has no roots at all, the underground micorhiza- 

 infested region being the rhizome. And one 

 cannot help regretting that the author should so 

 constantly use ' will ' and ' shall ' in an un- 

 rhetorical manner, as in the beginning of para- 

 graph 3. Paragraph 718 will scarcely do ; it is 

 neither science nor poetry. No doubt it was in- 

 tended to be pictorial, but the effect is reporter- 

 esque ; it reminds one of the society column of 

 the Sunday paper. 



None of these trifling blemishes interferes 

 with the general cleverness, scientific accuracy 

 and immense utility of the new ' Elementary 

 The publishers are to be congratu- 



