91 



they are not hard to find. The author, whose work on the Hver- 

 worts is well known, has presented an admirable brief account of 

 this group. The Anthocerotales are considered in a rank coordinate 

 with that of the liverworts and mosses and are taken up last in 

 the Bryophyta. In the Pteridophyta the Lycopods are discussed 

 first, where they really belong, and not last, as in most textbooks. 

 In a volume of slightly less than five hundred pages the author has 

 found opportunity to devote a page to apogamy and apospory, 

 another to the Gnetales, another to the embryo sac of the lily and 

 other atypical angiosperms. The chapter on genetics includes a 

 discussion of epistasis and of xenia. Other topics, such as tree 

 rings and their significance, artificial parthenocarpy, and hormones, 

 are not omitted. 



Perhaps the most unusual characteristic of this book is to be 

 found in the references at the end of the chapters. The author has 

 had the courage to add to those time-honored and time-worn cita- 

 tions, so familiar in textbooks, selected new ones, many of them 

 readable articles in the current journals. The illustrations are 

 clear and well drawn and, mirabile dictu, practically all original. 

 Throughout the book, as well as in the glossary, the derivation of 

 botanical terms is given. 



Conceivably a treatise could be written in clear diagrammatic 

 fashion, presenting facts and little more; but such a one would 

 hardly be worth its ink, Hke a picture without shading. Any worth- 

 while book reflects the personality of its author, and this is certainly 

 true of "Fundamentals of Plant Science." The author projects 

 not merely her personality but also her philosophy into her writing. 

 There will be those who disagree with this philosophy, and who will 

 therefore prefer other texts. This volume is appropriately bound 



in green. ^ ^ ^^ 



Edwin B. Matzke 



Columbia University 



Tudor Medicine 



An Herbal [1525]. Edited by Sanford V. Larkey and Thomas Pyles. 

 Pp. xxiv + 86. 72 pp. facs. Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1941. $3.50. 



"Here begynnyth a newe mater the whiche sheweth and treateth 

 of ye vertues & proprytes of herbes the whiche is called an Herball." 

 Just how new the matter was we cannot now say, the author not 



