76 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [july 



numerous new and well chosen cuts is refreshing. Unquestionably the book 

 is a valuable addition to elementary texts in botany and should find a wide 

 field of usefulness in the hands of trained instructors. — LeRoy H. Harvey. 



MINOR NOTICES 

 Nature sketches. — The chief scientific value of Hancock's Nature 



Sketches 4 is the large number of accurate and original observations upon 

 insects and other animals in relation to their natural environments. The 

 first chapter contains an unusually clear and simple discussion of problems 

 and theories of evolution. Insect and bird pollination, and the relations of 

 animals to flowers are discussed and beautifully and accurately illustrated, 

 especially in the second chapter, by drawings, photographs, and colored plates 

 of examples from temperate America. The adaptations of insects, birds, and 

 flowers are discussed, and the author appears to be of the opinion that every- 

 thing is useful. It is unfortunate that the idea of adaptation should be intro- 

 duced without qualification into a popular work at a time when many botanists 

 and zoologists regard it as doubtful. The chapters on "Animal behavior " 

 and "Ecology" should have had less comprehensive titles. Though some- 

 what confused with faunistic geography, the first five pages of the chapter on 

 ecology are devoted to a good summary of some of the important facts of 

 genetic ecology. The lists of plant and animal habitats at the end of the 

 book give the habitat preferences of a number of Orthoptera, but contain few 

 elements of progress in ecological classification. The current classification 

 has not been followed. 5 In addition to its scientific value, the book is a good 

 introduction to many aspects of natural history for the lay reader, 

 V. E. Shelford. 



Popular manuals.— The nature and purpose of the very interesting 

 Cambridge manuals of science and literature have been noticed in this journal. 6 

 At that time five volumes dealing with plants had been published, and now 

 two additional volumes have appeared: Links with the past in the plant world, 

 by A. C. Seward (pp. 142) ; Life in the sea, by J. Johnstone (pp. 150). The 

 volumes are sold for one shilling each, and form for the general reader a readable 

 resume of current scientific knowledge. The titles of the eight chapters of 

 Professor Seward's volume will give a better conception of the contents than 

 does the general title. They are as follows: "Longevity of trees, etc."; 

 "The geographical distribution of plants"; "The geological record"; "Pres- 

 ervation of plants as fossils"; "Ferns, their distribution and antiquity 

 "The redwood and mammoth trees of California"; "The Araucaria family 



jj 



>>. 



4 Hancock, Joseph L., Nature sketches in temperate America. 8vo. xviii+45 1 

 pis. 12. figs. 215. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1911. $2. 75. 



s Pearse, in Science 34-37- 1912, is mistaken in this matter. 

 6 Bot. Gaz. 52:234. 191 1. 



