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BOTANICAL GAZETTE 



so significant and helpful to biologists as the chapters dealing with this and 

 related topics in Hober's 4 work (chaps, vi, vii, and many points in later 

 chapters).— Wm. Crocker. 



An elementary textbook 



botany for elementary students i 



of presentation. An interesting organization of the fundamental facts of 

 botany for the benefit of elementary students is the recent text by Thoday, 5 



"Senior Cambridge local examinations." No previous knowledge of botany 

 is assumed, so that the presentation is intended to be strictly elementary. 



Without questioning the facts, the interesting feature of the book is its 

 testimony as to the requirements in botany in the examinations referred to. 

 The book is divided into five sections, whose titles sufficiently indicate the 



organs of plants as may be shown by a comparison of sunflower, grass, dande- 

 lion, and horse-chestnut, the first section deals with "The functions of plant 

 organs" and "The food of plants." The first contact, therefore, is physio- 

 logical, before any knowledge of structure has been developed. This follows 

 in the second section, under the title "Form and structure," which is an out- 

 line of anatomy. The third section bears the title "Reproduction," but it is 

 merely reproduction by seed plants, dealing with flowers, fruits, seeds, and 

 germination. "The classification of plants" is the title of the fourth section, 

 and this also is restricted to seed plants. The principal chapter is entitled 

 "Evolution and the principles of classification as illustrated by the buttercup 

 family." This section is really an introduction to some of the important 

 families of angiosperms. The last section is ecological, under the title " Plants 

 in relation to their environment," the five chapter headings illustrating the 

 treatment as follows: fitness, trees, climbing plants, water plants, the distribu- 



The notable feature of the book, aside from the order of presentation, is 

 the elimination of all plants except flowering plants. It is not a question as 

 to the importance or unimportance of the cryptogams, but as to any intelligent 

 " m some perspective of the plant 



«H6ber, R., Physikalische Chemie der Zelle und das Gewebe. pp. xviii+808. 

 1 Thoday. D.. Botanv: a textbook for senior students. 8vo. pp. xvi+474- 



ri.k:,: Imv.r, 



