94 



as establishing such transformation. The current ruHng, more 

 especially in vertebrate zoology, which, in view of such inter- 

 mediates reduces to subspecies widely diverse organic forms 

 may well be suspected of being artificial and of attaching a ficti- 

 tious importance to the mere evidences of origin which chance, 

 perhaps, has allowed to remain unobliterated. Some fault of 

 logic surely enters into a doctrine by which living types possess- 

 ing organic values of high distinction in their class are reduced 

 to relatively low taxonomic rank, A study such as the one 

 before us, by its conscientious method, its open-mindedness, its 

 enlightening results is a telling protest against the conventional, 

 the artificial, the easy in taxonomic work. 



Illustrations are indispensable to fliese pages and are well and 

 effectively supplied. The unshaded heliotype plates, mostly of 

 entire plants, are delicately true and bear touched into their out- 

 lines something indefinable which recalls instantly the individu- 

 ality of the living plant. The many cuts scattered through the 

 context are mostly by the author's own hand and add a guiding 

 value which well justifies the evident care in bringing out essential 

 points which has been bestowed on them. 



The student of Aster may now take courage. It is the promise 

 of this volume that the old hopeless search for real asters among 

 those ghosts and figments of systematic botany — inclusive 

 species — may presently remain to us only a doleful memory. 



E. P. BiCKNELL. 

 Winton's Microscopy of Vegetable Foods* 



The author prefaces his work with a brief discussion of the 

 apparatus, reagents, preparation of material for examination, and 

 the histology and morphology of vegetable organs. The dis- 

 cussion in which the reader is especially interested is divided into 

 nine parts as follows : i. Grain : its products and impurities. 2. 

 Oil seed and oil cakes. 3. Legumes. 4. Nuts. 5. Fruits and 

 fruit products. 6. Vegetables. 7. Alkaloidal products and their 

 substitutes. 8. Spices and condiments. 9. Commercial starches. 

 The work contains a glossary and index. 



*Winton, A. L. The Microscopy of Vegetable Foods, with special reference to 

 the detection of adulteration and the diagnosis of mixtures. 8vo. i-xvi + 1-701. f. 

 i-SSg. New York, John Wiley & Sons. 1906. Price $7.50. 



