118 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Some New Text Books. 
Elements of Botany. By W. J. Brownz, M.A., M.R.I.A., Inspector 
of Schools. Fifth dition. Re-written and greatly enlarged: 
8yo, pp. viii, 272. Manchester and London: John Heywood. 
1901. Price 2s. 6d. 
A Laboratory Course in Plant Physiology. By W. F. Ganone, Ph.D., 
Professor of Botany in Smith College. 8vo, pp. vi, 147. 
k: Holt. 1901. 
A Manual of Botany. Vol. ii. Classification and Physiology. By 
J. Reynotps Green, Se.D., F.R.S. Editio 8vo, pp. Xiv, 
515. London: Churchill. 1902. Price 10s. 
Outlines of Botany for the High School, Laboratory and Class-room. 
y Rosert Greentuar Leavirr, A.M. 8vo, pp. 272, tt. 384. 
American Book Company. 
In looking over the papers of elementary students of botany, one is 
often im d with certai kable statements, which can hardly 
be the result of imagination on the part of the examinee. Books 
like Mr. Browne’s Elements of Botany help to explain the origin 
of some of these wonderful answers. It is very sad to think that 
such a book can reach a fifth edition: and therefore presumably 
flourish, and that, too, under the xgis of an inspector of schools. 
Like many another book, “not written on the lines of any examina- 
tion course, it will be found to meet fully the requirements ”’ of the 
Science and Art Department in Great Britain, the matriculation 
course of the University of London, and other examinations. Much 
of the subject-matter is as good as that of other books which by a 
happy coincidence manage to hit the lines of certain popular exami- 
ee now and then we come upon a statement which makes us 
cotyledons consist chiefly of starch, which is insoluble in water, 
and therefo 
i art of the starch forms g giles 
planation of the details of this chemical process is ingenious, but 
not helpful. Three pages on, the prothallium of a fern is described 
its lower surface”; and four pages later we read that the nucleus 
“creeps about the cell like an amoeba, and hence its movement 18 
often called ameboid.” The pictures of Torula and Protococcus 0 
to 
have seen them before. This selection, and it is only a selection, 
is culled from the first forty pages, but is, we think, sufficient to 
