GO Canadian Record of Science. 



on Botany published on this side of the Atlantic, which 

 deals wholly with Histology and Physiology. Until the 

 present time, we have been obliged to depend almost 

 wholly upon reprints from the German for text-books of 

 this subject ; but it is to be hoped that the issue of this 

 volume is an indication of a future change in this direction. 



In its general appearance the book is very creditable, and 

 a decided improvement upon the usual make up of text- 

 books. The paper and letter-press are excellent, while the 

 figures, of which the publishers have given the author a 

 fairly liberal allowance, are fresh — an evident effort having 

 been made to avoid stereotyped illustrations — and in most 

 cases admirably well executed. The references to the litera- 

 ture of the various subjects treated, are fairly full, and will 

 be found a most valuable aid to the student, as also will the 

 large amount of matter embodied in the footnotes, explana- 

 tory of the text. The student is also provided, at the end 

 of the volume, with a large number of suggestions as to the 

 apparatus and material required in histological studies, and 

 also an outline of work which may be taken up. Valuable 

 as such suggestions are, the student must outline his own 

 course to a very large extent, using the work here given as a 

 basis, since he will otherwise find it a physical impossi- 

 bility to accomplish all that would seem desirable. 



The author has endeavored, with success, to leave no 

 element of structure or physiological fact without discus- 

 sion, while his entire treatment of the subject will commend 

 itself to teachers generally, as clear and logical; although in 

 more than one instance there appears to be a lack in fulness 

 of treatment which would be highly desirable, but which 

 would hardly be practicable in a book designed for an ordi- 

 nary course of instruction. In some instances, however, 

 this becomes a fault, since the compression is carried to 

 such an extent as to give the student a very inadequate 

 impression of the subject discussed. Thus, at page 64, 

 collenchyma is dismissed with great brevity, without the 

 reader's being given a proper conception of the struc- 

 ture of that tissue, nor is he assisted at all by the figure 

 (44), which is by no means a typical example. Such, how- 



