264 
From the above quotations it will be seen that the ideas of 
those who are inclined to draw unjust comparisons between '' mere 
taxonomy " and other phases of botanical work are not modern; 
neither are they restricted to this country but were current in 
England fifty years ago. 
F. J. SEAVER 
REVIEWS 
Pammel's Manual of Poisonous Plants* 
A Manual of Poisonous Plants is the title of a book recently 
pubished by L. H. Pammel, in which the author brings together 
into one volume most of the literature pertaining to plants 
injurious to man and to live stock. 
The astonishing size of the book is explained on the first page 
of the foreword, thus: “І have placed the broadest interpretation 
on the subject and have, therefore, included all plants that are 
injurious, although many of these are not known to produce 
poisons, some even being most useful economic plants, and yet 
injurious to some people." Later on Pammel also says: '' During 
the last decade, there has been much interest manifested in regard 
to plants injurious to live stock." I quote this as showing not 
only the trend of the author's thought, but to account, in part, 
for the great size of the volume. 
The first chapter is headed '' Poisons and Statistics on Poisons” 
and contains such sub-headings as "Ancient Use of Poisons,” 
“The Rise of Chemistry and Poisons,” “ Ratzenburg on Poison- 
ous Plants," “Statistics on Poisoning," ‘Statutes on Poisoning" 
and " Actions of Poisons on Different Animals." Under ''Statis- 
tics of Poisoning" is given the number of persons dying by 
taking active poisons and by inhaling illuminating gas, and the 
poisonous cases reported among live stock in Montana during 
1900. There are only seven pages in this chapter and the 
different subjects are treated so briefly that the information is 
necessarily very meagre. 
* Pammel, L. Н. Manual of Poisonous Plants. Pp. 1-977. f. 1-458 + many 
unnumbered figures and plates. The Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 1911. 
