332 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 348. 



eluding the lichens), Phaeophyta, the brown 

 algae, Rhodophyta, the red algae, and Cormo- 

 phyta (including liverworts, mosses, ferns and 

 their allies, and the seed-bearing plants). The 

 work is admirably illustrated. 



The appearance of the first half of the sec- 

 ond volume of the new edition of PfefFer's 

 ' Pflanzenphysiologie ' (Engelmann, Leipzig) is 

 gratifying to botanists who have been using the 

 first volume. This part covers 353 pages, in- 

 dicating that Volume II. will be considerably 

 larger than Volume I. The present half-vol- 

 ume includes ten chapters, as follows : (1) 

 Growth Movements, (2) Mechanics of Growth, 

 (3) Growth and Cell- increase, (4) Elasticity 

 and Cohesion, (5) Tissue Tensions, (6) Influ- 

 ence of Environment on Growth-activity, (7) 

 Cause of Specific Form, (8) Variation and He- 

 redity, (9) Rhythm, (10) Resistance to extreme 

 Influences. A hasty glance through these chap- 

 ters indicates that the work maintains the high 

 standard of the preceding volume. The sec- 

 ond part of Volume II. is in course of prepara- 

 tion, and will complete the work. 

 , Of Engler's ' Pflanzenreich ' (Engelmann, 

 Leipzig) four parts have already appeared, 

 dealing with the families Musaceae (by K. Schu- 

 mann), Typhaceae and Sparganiaceae (by P. 

 Graebner), Pandanaceae (by O. Warburg), and 

 Monimiaceae (by Janet Perkins and Ernst Gilg). 

 The illustrations continue to be more than 

 unusually, helpful, being clear, well drawn, 

 and judiciously selected. In the part devoted 

 to Pandanaceae there are, in addition to the or- 

 dinary illustrations, four full-page ' half-tone ' 

 plates from photographs showing the gross ap- 

 peai-ance of different arboreous species with 

 their natural surroundings. 



Thomas Howell's ' Flora of ISTorth west Amer- 

 ica' (Howell, Portland, Or.), has reached Fas- 

 cicle 4 which includes Liguliflorae to Boragina- 

 ceae (pages 387 to 474). As the author follows 

 the Benthamian sequence it is easy to estimate 

 by comparison with Gray's 'Manual ' that the 

 work is not more than one-half completed. 

 The work, although marred by typographical 

 errors (incidental to unprofessional printing) and 

 an ' inky' page now and then, will be a very 

 important help to the northwestern botanists. 



The last-named work reminds us of a local 



northwestern flora, ' The Flora of the Palouse 

 Region,' by Charles V. Piper and R. Kent 

 Beattie (Agricultural College, Pullman, Wash.), 

 which appeared in May of the present year. 

 The area covered is 70 kilometers in diameter 

 with the town of Pullman, Wash., as a center, 

 and includes about 24 townships in eastern 

 Washington and 11 in western Idaho. In this 

 region the authors describe 14 Pteridophytes, 9 

 Gymnosperms, 114 Monocotyledons and 526 

 Dicotyledons. The work of compilation ap- 

 pears to have been well done, and it is a pleas- 

 ure to observe an attempt at a somewhat mod- 

 ernized terminology, and the use of metric 

 measurements throughout. Engler and Prantl's 

 System has been followed, and in nomenclature 

 ' the so-called Kew and Berlin rules.' It must 

 prove very helpful to students of northwestern 

 Idaho and eastern Washington far outside of 

 the limits covered. 



The handy little book, 'Grasses,' by Dr. H. 

 Marshall Ward, of Cambridge University (Uni- 

 versity Press, London), shows what may be done 

 by a competent botanist in the way of making 

 a difficult subject somewhat plain and not too 

 technical. In less than two hundred small oc- 

 tavo pages the author gives a great deal of in- 

 formation, valuable not only to the student of 

 grasses, but also to the practical man whose 

 business it is to grow grasses for forage. There 

 are chapters on the vegetative organs, anatomy, 

 flowers and ' seeds' of grasses, followed in each 

 case by a classification based on these charac- 

 ters alone. The book must be very useful in 

 England and it suggests the need of a similar 

 work for the United States. 



POPULARIZING THE STUDY OF FERNS. 



Whatever tends to increase the popular in- 

 terest in plants is directly contributoiy to the 

 advancement of science. Every book and every 

 organization which stimulates au admiration 

 and consideration of plants is to be encour- 

 aged by scientific men. Such a book is Mabel 

 Osgood Wright's ' Flowers and Ferns in their 

 Haunts' (Macmillan, New York), with its 

 charming text, artistic cuts, and wonderfully 

 accurate ' half-tone ' reproductions of well- 

 taken, well-selected, gray-mounted photographs 

 of landscapes, where plants are shown in all their 



