September 30, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



435 



isli Museiim, and lecturer in botany at the 

 Birkbeck College. Vol. I., Gymnosperms 

 and Monocotyledons. Cambridge, at the 

 ITniversity Press. 1904. Pp. siv + 403. 

 Svo. 187 figures in the text. 

 The purpose of this book is stated by the 

 author to be ' an attempt to give the student 

 who has some acquaintance with the rudiments 

 of botany a systematic account of the flower- 

 ing plants.' By ' flowering plants ' Dr. Kendle 

 here means the seed plants, so that the pines, 

 cedars, yews and their relatives are included 

 under the term. That the author does not 

 himseK agree with this grouping is clearly 

 shown in the preface, where he goes so far even 

 as to doubt the paramount value of the seed 

 character in classification. However, after ex- 

 pressing this doubt, he concludes ' on the pres- 

 ent occasion ' to treat the gymnosperms (pines, 

 cedars, yews, etc.) and angiosperms (lilies, 

 grasses, buttercups, pinlss, mints, roses, pars- 

 leys and sunflowers) as parts of a single great 

 group. 



The first chapter, of about thirty pages, is 

 given to a short historical statement of the 

 development of plant classification. Wliile 

 brief, this is a useful summary, especially for 

 those not having access to considerable libra- 

 ries. The treatment is quite unequal. Thus 

 a half page each is allotted to Eobert Brown 

 and John Lindley, and but a page to End- 

 licher, while to Van Tieghem and his singular 

 systems are given more than five and a half 

 pages. The system adopted by the author is 

 essentially that of Engler in the third edition 

 of his ' Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien.' 



The book is logically arranged, beginning 

 with those groups which the author considers 

 to be lower and primitive. Thus we have 

 taken up first a discussion of the structure of 

 the reproductive and vegetative organs of the 

 Cordaitales, extinct since the Carboniferous 

 period. Naturally the treatment is brief and 

 incomplete for want of good material, but it 

 must be said that the author has made the 

 most of the little that we know of thesejprimi- 

 tive gymnosperms. Then follows a longer 

 chapter on the Cycadales, in which the author 

 confines his discussion wholly to the living 

 forms. Next comes a short chapter on Ben- 



nettitales, extinct since the Mesozoic period, 

 followed by one on Ginkgoales, based mainly 

 upon the single living. Ginkgo hiloba, but with 

 some reference to extinct species. In passing 

 it may be noted that Dr. Eendle considers the 

 structures on which the ovules of Oinkgo are 

 borne to be axial. We much prefer Van 

 Tieghem's interpretation of these structures 

 as foliar in nature. The chapter on the Coni- 

 ferales is by far the longest, as it should be. 

 The usual morphological views are adopted, 

 and the grouping of the genera is quite like 

 that with which we are familiar. In regard 

 to the nature of the seed-scale of the pines 

 and their allies, the views of many investiga- 

 tors are given, and the whole is summed up by 

 the statement that ' the view that the scale 

 and ovule represent a secondary axis arising in 

 the axis of the bract is at present the most 

 generally accepted one.' In the treatment of 

 Gnetales there is nothing new. The accept- 

 ance of the name Tumhoa (instead of Welwit- 

 scliia) is significant. A few years ago such an 

 application of the ' law of priority ' would 

 have been most unlikely. 



In taking up the angiosperms about fifty 

 pages are given to a chapter devoted to their 

 general morphology, in which we have consid- 

 erable injection of modern morphology and 

 terminology into what is for the most part a 

 treatment along old lines. In reading the 

 pages of this chapter one is impressed with the 

 feeling that the author is condensing and ab- 

 breviating his discussion, with a consequent 

 loss of clearness. For the student who has 

 no more than ' some acquaintance with the 

 rudiments of botany ' many of the statements 

 of the author will not be understood, and will 

 have to be supplemented by much elucidation 

 at the hands of his instructor. 



The chapter dealing with the monocotyle- 

 dons is well worked out, about two hundred 

 pages being given to their morphology and 

 classification. Following Engler's system the 

 Pandanales are taken up first, with the remark 

 that in them ' the flower is extremely in- 

 definite ' and that ' we have here presumably 

 a primitive condition, prior to the evolution 

 of the more typical arrangement.' The 

 Helobiese follow with the usual treatment, in- 



