1911] CURRENT LITERATURE 67 
It used to be supposed that insects crawling through the deliquescing portion 
aid in scattering spores, but it is found that the spores discharge before the 
pileus deliquesces; deliquescence, however, removes the older part of the 
pileus from beneath the parts where active shedding is taking place, thus making 
a cylindrical pileus as well adapted for spore dispersal by currents as is a 
horizontal pileus. Hence the author regards Coprinus as a more specialized 
orm than one like Agaricus. The closing chapters deal with spore dispersal 
in the Ascomycetes and in Pilobolus —Hrnry C. Cow Les. 
The Chicago textbook 
It has been many a day since any botanical-educational work has been 
anticipated with such interest as the book before us. Entirely new: prepared 
by three sympathetic co-workers, all eminent both as investigators and teach- 
ers: elaborated under the facilities and freedom provided by one of our most 
progressive universities: the appearance of such a work is naturally an educa- 
tional event. The result, in greater part, is now before us,™ and the remainder 
is promised for the very near future. 
Of the three parts, part I, of 296 pages, is Morphology, by Professor 
Courter. It is devoted wholly to the description and illustration of the 
natural groups from Thallophytes to Spermatophytes, the axial idea of the 
treatment being the morphological evolution of structures. The title Mor- 
phology, therefore, is to be read as Special rather than General Morphology. 
There will be, I believe, but one opinion upon these pages; that they are a 
model of precise, expressive, well-balanced description. Throughout the work 
runs the evidence of advanced knowledge combined with a spirit of caution 
and an emphasis upon the study of things as they are rather than as they should 
be. If there is anywhere a better account of the groups, and of the morpho- 
logical evolution, of plants, it is not known to the present reviewer; and it 
will take a more intensive knowledge of these subjects than he possesses to 
detect any material fault or error therein. The illustrations, no less than 618 
in number, are almost wholly new to textbooks, though they are largely 
taken from special works of the author or his students, a fact which will explain 
the frequent larger size and greater elaboration of detail than would otherwise 
be selected for such a work. There is not, of course, much room for anything 
strikingly new or suggestive in the treatment of the subject, but most readers, 
no doubt, will turn with especial interest to the discussion of the “new anat- 
omy”; and there will be general relief to find that it differs much less from the 
old than we had perhaps been led to expect 
Part II is Physiology, by the late Professor Barnes, and we cannot but 
Consider it a piece of singular good fortune that he was able to complete this 
embodiment of his extensive knowledge and teaching skill before his lamented 
**CouLter, Barnes, and Cowzes, A textbook of botany. Vol. I. Morphology 
and pil 8vo. viii+484 pp. figs. 699. New York: American Book Company. 
I9gto. $2.00 
