DIE BOTANISCHE MIKROTECHNIK. 219 



Ascophyllum and Desmarestia, which, taken with the galls in Ehodij- 

 vtenia, published in this Journal (1891, p. 65), and Mr. A. W. 

 Bennett's researches on Vaucheria-g&Us, will be welcomed as a step 

 towards the adequate treatment of the pathology of Algse. In the 

 last paper Mr. Batters adds yet another new genus to the British 

 list, already so largely extended by this acute observer. This is 

 Conchocelis, a form of shell-boring alga related to Etythrottichia, but 

 differing from that type in being branched. 



The general get-up of the new publication is unexceptionable, 

 all the papers being admirably printed and illustrated, although one 

 wonders why the binder's art has been utterly ignored. The parts 

 will be issued "at about half-yearly intervals"; the price of the 

 first, not stated on the wrapper, is 7s. 6d. r # j # jj q 



Die Botanische Mihroteclmik. Von Dr. A. Zimmermann. Tubingen, 

 1892. Die Laupp'schen Buchhandlung. 63 figs. Pp. x. 278. 



Books on methods of research multiply out of proportion to the 

 researches performed, and in some branches of Natural History, 

 such as the study of Bacteria, the methods of investigating them 

 absorb nearly as much attention as the organisms themselves. The 

 attempt to teach Botany under cover of expounding such methods 

 is not invariably successful, and a small, handy treatise on methods 

 pure and simple is certainly a book to be preferred. The present 

 one is such a book, about as brief and concise as could be expected 

 from the fashions of German scientific literature. It is excellently 

 arranged, well illustrated with original figures, and, so far as we 

 have put it to trial, satisfactory. It begins with a section on 

 general methods, which is followed by another on the micro- 

 chemistry of plants, dealing with the inorganic and organic com- 

 pounds in a classified series ; then comes a third section on methods 

 for investigating the cell-membrane and contents in detail, and 

 lastly an appendix on the study of Bacteria. It is in fact excellently 

 adapted for reference, a point of first-class importance in a book of 

 this kind. Some of the methods, such as those connected with the 

 use of the microtome, seem to be needlessly elaborate, but this is 

 a common fault. It needs a peculiarly cold-blooded kind of investi- 

 gator to get accustomed to such prolonged preparation. In many 

 cases where it is usually employed the microtome is absolutely 

 unnecessary ; the whole matter might be settled by carefully made 

 hand sections, and the paper written and illustrations drawn while 

 the fixing, embedding, cutting, staining, &c, is in progress, after 

 the methods of microtomy. Some methods advocated in Germany 



literally consume weeks. 



We cordially recommend this little book as the best of its kind 

 we have met with. It is a most useful and handy storehouse of 

 information on this very important subject, which no botanist can 

 afford to wholly neglect. A few hints on the investigation of 

 herbarium material strike us as useful, but, considering the enormous 

 importance of this matter, too brief. In a future edition a good 

 deal more might be added on this head at the expense of certain 

 other parts of the book. It might have the effect, moreover, of 



