173 



cially full and useful; often cautionary statements are made to 

 help the student over dififiicult spots. Figures 70 and 71 are almost 

 theatrical in their instant impression, so strikingly do they portray 

 the floral parts of Orchis maculata. It is unfortunate, however, 

 that apparently all the figures lack an indication of the amount of 

 enlargement. 



Another feature of the book is the uniform treatment of the 

 species selected for demonstration of floral mechanism. Thus the 

 "habit, inflorescence, flower, calyx, corolla, androecium, gynoecium, 

 pollination, and fruit" characters are given for each species treated. 



The chart on page 151 suggests a phylogeny for the plant 

 families treated in this book but such a suggestion is misleading 

 both for the enormous gaps in the series chosen of the total plant 

 families, indicating positions as it does for not one-thirteenth of 

 the world's families, and even for the arrangement of the twenty- 

 one families placed on the chart. Thus it is implied that the Caryo- 

 phyllaceae are more "advanced" than the Violaceae, a fact ill sup- 

 ported by the morphology of these two families. 



There is a one-page skeleton bibliography of sources well known 

 to students of floral morphology, though there are omissions of 

 such fundamental sources as the Coulter and Chamberlain volume 

 hereinbefore mentioned. The three-page glossary is inadequate. 

 Apomixis is too narrowly defined ; cotyledon is scarcely defined at 

 all. There is a good index. 



Beyond the details mentioned in this review which detract from 

 the book there remains a useful text which will ably serve as a 

 handbook for use in courses in angiosperm morphology and sys- 

 tematics. It is hoped that the author will be able to rearrange the 

 materials, with some elimination of extraneous topics, in an 

 extended future edition that will save for us all the fine features 

 of the present book. Meanwhile, its usefulness will prove its greatest 

 compliment. 



Methods and Materials for Teaching Science* 



Ralph C. Benedict 



Throughout the centuries, since men have tried to approach the 

 objective world in a spirit of pure enquiry, there have always been 



* Modern Methods and Materials for Teaching Science. Heiss, E. D., 

 Osbourn, E. S., and Hoffman, C. W. Pp. 351. The Macmillan Co. $2.50. 1940. 



