64 



may be predicted, both because of its specific reference values, and 

 because of its admirable general point of view, and its lack of dogma- 

 tism with respect to the use of any particular method. 



In the second section, dealing with the various groups of plants 

 in sequence, the reviewer finds two points of special interest be- 

 cause of their significance from a general botanical point of view. 

 The adoption of the word, "phylum," for a major plant group is 

 perhaps a part of a growing tendency away from the separate 

 terminology for botany and zoology, which has generally prevailed. 

 Furthermore, the fact that fifteen such phyla are recognized is 

 another interesting index of a possible trend toward a new sub- 

 division of the plant kingdom. More and more it appears that 

 botanists are becoming willing to depart from the long-standing 

 grouping of plants into four or five complex, omnibus divisions. 

 That diflrerent botanists, in breaking away from the older practices, 

 show considerable divergence in their final tabulation of the phyla 

 each recognizes, is perhaps a necessary result of a transition period. 

 Such departures as the present should at least serve the purpose 

 of focussing attention on the fact that a real problem exists. 



Johansen recognizes fifteen phyletic groups arranged in the 

 following order: Schizophyta, Chlorophyta, Euglenophyta, Pyr- 

 roph}i:a, Crysophyta, Phaeophyta, Cyanophyta, Rhodophyta, Myxo- 

 thallophyta, Mycophyta (Eumycetes), Bryophyta, Pteridoph}ta, 

 Cycadophyta, Coniferoph}1:a, Anthophyta. 



The very sequence, with its separation of groups usually kept 



together, as bacteria and blue-green algae, constitutes a challenge 



to critical consideration and revaluation of the evidence. In an 



arrangement which puts together all the fungi under one phylum, 



but recognizes four distinct vascular plant phyla, it is natural 



that the fungi require the largest number of pages of any one group. 



■D -n r- R. C. Benedict 



Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 



AND Brooklyn College. 



