﻿of Botany in this country. It came at the right moment, when a 

 special stimulus was needed to urge both teachers and students into 

 practical study, and to warn them of the disasters that come of 

 mere book knowledge of minute structure. It was impossible to 

 use it as a "cram" book — on every page it reminded its owner of 

 his instruments and subject in a way that permitted of no skipping; 

 it proved an "old man of the sea" to all concerned, and did more, 

 from its very nature, to compelling first-hand study of minute 

 structure than any appeal of author or teacher. It had one fault 

 for the elementary class, — its bulk, — and its author having plainly 

 discerned this, has now brought out an abridged form of it. The 

 book could not have been simplified, — the large edition is plain 

 enough,— and this abridgment was the wiser course. There can 

 be no question of the good that will result from it. This edition 

 goes over the whole ground of the larger one, and contains all the 

 main types; but since the supplementary descriptions of other 

 forms are omitted, the teacher will have to make tnis good in his 

 lectures in order to guard against the evils of mere type knowledge. 

 The author evidently dreads the narrowing of the scope of teaching 

 that would come of an omission of this supplementary instruction, 

 and wisely inserts a caution that teachers will do well to remember. 

 Botanists must be grateful, above all things, for the thoroughly 

 healthy style of Dr. fcieott's and Prof. Bower's methods of teaching 

 elementary Botany as shown in these two books. 



G. M. 



der BLumm von Christian Konrad Sprengkl (1793). Heraus- 

 gegeben von Paul Knuth. In vier Bandchen. 8vo, pp. 181, 

 172, 178. Titel-kuper (with explanation of figures), and 

 tabs. 1-25. Leipzig : W. Engelmann. 1894. Price 8 marks. 

 These four little volumes are Nos. 48-51 of Ostwald's Klassih r 

 der K.rukb n tt'mcnsvhafwn. When reviewing some months ago in 

 this Journal one of the same series, Kolreuter's researches and 

 observations on the sex of plants, we expressed regret that 

 Sprengel's classical work had not been reissued in a similar 

 form, as a fitting commemoration of its centenary. Mayer and 

 Muller, of Berlin, have since issued a facsimile reprint, and we 

 now possess the present handy little edition by Dr. Knuth. The 

 first three volumes contain the text in which the original paging is 

 indicated, and the index, while the fourth is devoted to the title- 

 page and the twenty-five plates. The latter are reduced, being 

 rather more than half the size of the original copper engravings, 

 with which, though fair reproductions, they naturally compare 

 somewhat unfavourably. Comparison of the text with that of the 

 original shows a few discrepancies in punctuation and some 

 inconsistencies in treatment of old forms of spelling, &c. ; ii segn, 

 beym, drey, and the like are kept up, so also should be the separation 

 of compound words. In a brief appendix at the end of each volume 

 the editor includes a few critical notes and references to later work 

 on individual plants studied by Sprengel. He also gives us a very 



