40 
a concise exposition of the original Mendelian doctrine together 
with the various modifications which have developed from recent 
investigations in genetics. The conceptions of the Cambridge 
school of genetics, especially in reference to the Presence and 
Absence Hypothesis, are well presented. 
The general non-technical treatment, the clear statement of 
principles, the careful presentation of experimental data drawn 
from investigations with both plants and animals, and the use 
of excellent diagrams and illustrations combine to make the book 
of unusual interest to the general public. 
It is to be regretted that, in spite of criticisms on the former 
editions, the author continues to define ovules and pollen grains 
as gametes. The development of the male and female gameto- 
phytes in flowering plants with the subsequent ac: of fertilization 
is thus presented: * The pollen cell bores its way down the pistil 
to reach an ovule." In even a popular discussion of principles 
depending on definite factors which gametes bear, it is difficult 
to understand why the sex generation should be so lightly disposed 
of. 
A few words upon this phase would give this interesting popular 
treatise an additional accuracy that is in keeping with well- 
known morphological facts.—A. B. STOUT. 
THE Рі0мѕ ОЕ New York. (Hedrick, U. P. Eighteenth 
Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture. State of 
New York, Vol. 3, Part II, or Report of the New York Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station for the Year 1910, П, pages viii+616. 
Albany, 1911.)—In the writing of this bulky volume, Hedrick 
has been assisted by R. Wellington, O. M. Taylor, W. H. Alder- 
man and M. J. Dorsey. The Plums of New York is the third 
monograph of the fruits of New York State, the two preceding 
reports being on apples and grapes respectively. Broadly 
speaking, the work, which is illustrated by 108 beautifully colored 
plates of plums, is a horticultural and not a botanical work and 
yet it is of greatest value to the botanist. The book has been 
written for New York, but its contents are so general in character 
that it applies to the whole country and more or less to the world. 
