﻿CURRENT LITERATURE 



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the Ray Society in 1869. The older work has become naturally very incom- 

 plete, for during the last 50 years there has been an enormous increase in the 

 knowledge of abnormal structures. The work will comprise two volumes, the 

 first one containing the fungi, the bryophytes, and the root, stem, and leaf of 

 the vascular plants. The algae are not included because they exhibit too 

 few abnormalities to make description worth while. The second volume will 

 deal with the flower. This bringing together of the great mass of material 

 in convenient form will be a boon to those interested in teratology.— J. M. C. 



Western wild flowers— Margaret Armstrong^ in collaboration with 

 J. J. Thornber, has written a handy and well illustrated volume under this 

 title, which, although primarily intended for lovers of wild flowers, will be use- 

 ful to botanists as well. The wild flowers of Washington, Oregon, California, 

 Idaho, Utah, and Arizona are dealt with, but those found only in the Rocky 

 Mountains are not included. The key to families is an excellent feature, and 

 the usefulness of the volume would be much greater had it been extended to 

 species. The collaboration of Professor Thornber insures the accuracy of the 

 text.— W. J. G. Land. 



NOTES FOR STUDENTS 

 Transpiration studies —The desirability of giving a quantitative turn 

 to ecological description and classification, together with the recognition that 

 the most useful of such classifications have been based upon the water relations, 

 has led to efforts to measure the power of the plant (1) to absorb water from 

 its surroundings, (2) to distribute this water within its body, and (3) to prevent 

 the loss of water to its environment. To study the third feature of the water 

 relation some means of measuring the resistance offered by leaves and other 

 parts of plants to water loss, or, stated in other words, of measuring the relative 

 transpiring power of plants, has been needed. A further requirement of such 

 a system is that it shall be readily applicable to plants growing in open soil. 

 In seeking to meet this need Livingston'' has modified the cobalt paper method 

 of Stahl, and adapted it to compare the transpiring power of a leaf with 

 evaporation from a standard surface, namely, that of saturated blotting paper 

 shown by Renner to evaporate water at the same rate as an equal area of 

 free water surface. In a series of experiments he has shown that this new 

 method is probably the most satisfactory known for comparing the same plant 

 at different times, or for comparing different plants, in regard to the transpiring 

 power of their surfaces. The ratio of the time required for color change of the 

 standardized cobalt chloride paper exposed over the standard surface, to the 



396. Jigs. 548. New York: Putnam. 1915- 

 loss. Plant World 16:1-35. 1913- 



