ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 379 
been better to give a mere list of some of the more important diseases 
to which cultivated farm plants are subject in Britain, instead 
‘* Damping-off,” and ‘ White-rust,” not to speak of the fungi 
attacking fruit and timber trees, is a mistake ; and we feel it would 
have been oo ec “ the subject altogether alone than to treat 
it in so spar 
The ees tots eis pe: book is systematic (in a botanical sense) ; 
its eccentric arrangement hardly justifies such a description. ) 
Grasses appear first, then Leguminose, and after both a chapter 
called “Classification of plants,”’ prin one ien a other pisniai 
but refers back to the portions on Grasses and minose. 
descriptions 0 pit — are ete meagre, tad the sah 
‘* Determ ca ea of Grasses,’”’ will not by itself, or en with the 
plates, help the a rg to identify species. For example, Poa 
pratensis is described as ‘‘ Smooth meadow grass, seoognised by its 
. ) Hp 
whose hands this book ma will be able to amplify and 
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which Messrs. Methuen are bringing out the “ University Exten- 
sion Series’’ to which it belongs. IR.’Gi 
Romance oe ie Life amongst Plants. By M. C. Cooxs, M.A., 
A.L.8. (Society for Proiotlag —— Kaowiedes. ) 
1893. ” Byo, pp. vii, 820, figs. 60. Pric 
TxERE must still be in these piping times a ee of innocent 
people who delight to hear of the wonders of Pio for whom the 
search after truth has no attraction if it be not marvellous in its 
revelation. They have persisted since the an of Sir John 
om 
o return 9 Dr. Cooke’s account of those romantic organisms, 
the eryptogams; if such a book had to be written it is plain that he 
