Makch 16, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



425 



is one of the most popular of the State reports. 

 This fact alone would mark the book as one of 

 the most notable of recent publications, but 

 when we add the beauty of its typography and 

 illustrations, excellence of paper, and perfection 

 of printing, so generally wanting in State 

 Reports, we are doubly surprised. It is en- 

 couraging to find an author, who is an 

 acknowledged master of the vocabulary of 

 technical science, who here shows that he is 

 equally at home in the non-technical presenta- 

 tion of strictly scientific facts in a somewhat 

 new field of botany, and to learn that even 

 State printing may be brought to compete suc- 

 cessfully with the finest work done in private 

 establishments. This volume is thus a distinct 

 gain along more than one line. 



The purpose of the book cannot be told bet- 

 ter than in the author's own words : "In the 

 pages of this book I hope to give the reader an 

 idea of the diversified plant life which occupies 

 the air, the soil and the waters of Minnesota. 

 First of all, it must be remembered that plants, 

 although passive creatures, are quite as truly 

 living beings as are the more active animals. 

 Just as men and women, either themselves or 

 their ancestors, have entered the state from 

 some other region, so also have plants, accord- 

 ing to the nature of each, found their way and 

 selected their abodes. It is no easy problem to 

 determine why some family has chosen one 

 village rather than another. This may have 

 been from causes which are too subtle or too 

 remote for analysis, but it is recognized that 

 people have not come to make their homes 

 without some reason which seemed sufficient 

 to them or -to their forefathers. So, too, there 

 is always some reason for the appearance at a 

 particular spot of one kind of plant rather than 

 another, and it is possible, in a general way, 

 to explain the vegetation of the hills and 

 meadows of the state " (page 1). 



Then follow simple discussions of the geog- 

 raphy, climate and physical history of Minne- 

 sota, the laws of plant distribution, plant 

 zones, the forests of Minnesota and the world, 

 the North American flora, plant wanderings 

 and migrations, associations between migrating 

 plants, struggles of migrating plants, etc. 



In speaking of the number of species of 



plants, the author estimates that of the 300,000 

 now living, about 7500 are probably to be 

 found growing without cultivation in Minne- 

 sota, and distributes them approximately as 

 follows : Slime moulds (which later he says 

 are 'more probably animals') 150; bacteria 

 and algse, 1000 ; fungi and lichens, 3250 ; liver- 

 worts and mosses, 500 ; ferns and flowering 

 plants, 2600. 



Thirty-seven chapters are given to a general 

 account of the vegetation of the State, under 

 such heads as ' Slime Moulds and Blue-green 

 Algae,' ' The lower sorts of Fungi,' ' Garrion- 

 Fungi and Puff-balls,' 'Lichens and Beetle- 

 fungi,' 'Mosses and Liverworts,' 'Ferns and 

 Water- ferns, ' 'Ground-hemlocks and various 

 Pines,' 'Grasses and Sedges,' 'Poplars and 

 Willows,' 'Roses, Peas and their Relatives,' 

 ' Wintergreens to Chaffweeds, ' ' Peppermints 

 to Plantains,' ' Dandelions, Ragweeds and 

 Thistles.' 



The remaining chapters (XL. to XLV.) are 

 devoted to a general discussion of the ecological 

 problems involved in a full understanding of 

 the flora. One of these takes up 'Adaptations 

 of Plants to their Surroundings,' in which the 

 several factors. Gravity, Mechanical Forces, 

 Heat, Light, Moisture, Electricity and Magne- 

 tism, the Soil or Substratum, Other Living 

 Things, and Intra-specific Adaptations are dis- 

 cussed. Another is given to Hydrophytic 

 Plants, another to Xerophytic Plants, and still 

 another to Halophytes and Mesophytes. These 

 chapters, in spite of their titles, are very simply 

 treated, and may be read easily by any person 

 of average ability. The closing chapters are 

 more philosophical and are devoted to the 

 Maintenance of the Plant Individual, and the 

 Maintenance of the Plant Species. 



The author has certainly succeeded ' ' in por- 

 traying the vegetation of Minnesota as an as- 

 semblage of living creatures, as a world of 

 infinite variety, yet with a fundamental unity 

 of plan, as forms linked together in structure, 

 function and adaptation," and he has done so 

 in language so simple, and yet so precise as to 

 afibrd to us a new suggestion as to the presen- 

 tation of scientific matter for the public. There 

 is here left no opportunity for the shallow 

 book-writer to take the author's results and 



