199 



I cannot forecast how the proposal will strike experienced bot- 

 anists ; but it appears to me to be at least worthy of their consid- 

 eration. 



George Maci.oskie. 



Princeton Univkksitv, 

 October lo, 1905. 



REVIEWS 



Campbell's flosses and Perns* 



The second edition of Professor Campbell's work on the 

 mosses and ferns will, we are sure, be welcomed by botanists, 

 since the earlier book has been for some time out of print. The 

 value of this book has by no means been small, and its extension 

 to over a hundred pa<:^es beyond the limits of the original produc- 

 tion, together with the changes made necessary by recent ad- 

 vances in our knowledge, will make it still more useful. Typo- 

 graphically, the new edition is not up to the standard of the first. 

 Cuts which appeared clean-cut before are now blurred, a result 

 no doubt partly due to the damage done to the blocks during 

 storage, and partly to inferior printing. 



Among the more noticeable changes in the descriptive part of 

 the work we note that the author adopts the view that the 

 Anthocerotes are coordinate in rank with the Hepaticae and 

 Musci, and that the treatment of this interesting segregate is 

 fuller. The practical limitations of book-making have prevented 

 excursions into detail which, however desirable, would easily 

 have doubled the volume in size. Nevertheless, the author has 

 deemed it well to deal somewhat fully with the maturer phases 

 of the sporophytic generation in the more highly organized 

 groups with which he deals, so far as the scope of his task 

 would permit. We are of the opinion that in many instances he 

 has been led into retailing very well-known or easily attainable 

 information, accessible in many reference books. To this slight 

 extent the descriptions smack of compilation without sufficient 

 •critical knowledge of the more obvious points of structure, 



* Campbell, D. H. The Structuie and Development of the Mosses and Kerns 

 (Archegoniatae). 8vo. 1-657. y". 1-322. New York, The Macmilian Company. 

 1905. Price, $4.50 



