﻿Prof. Hartig has the great claim < 

 clone more than any other one man to found a real science 

 pathology. Others greater than Hartig have performed i 



:. 



has steadily and above all kept the special study of plant-disease 

 foremost in lis work with much brilliant and practical result. 

 There is no better exami , n this book, excellently 



translated by Prof. Somervillo. Prof. Ward Ins add. d many useful 

 footnotes, especially addressed to readers in this country, and his 

 preface is interesting reading to those who desire a oiviiinomrv 



The Introduction gives an account of the development of the 

 study of vegetable pathology, and is concerned with general con- 

 siderations as to the causes of disease. These are classified into 

 (1) Diseases induced by Phanerogams ; (2) Diseases induced by 

 Crvptn-ams: [9) Wound*: (1) Diseases du, to unfavourable con- 

 ditions of the soil; (5) Diseases due to unfavourable atmospheric 

 conditions, These become, in fact, the heads under which the 

 contents of the book are arranged, and it is unnecessary to say that 

 the fungi absorb the most attention. What strikes one most in 

 the treatment of this part especially is the wide view taken— the 

 practical view of the whole matter. One has become so much 

 accustomed to the life history of the fungus obtaining almost the 

 whole consideration that it is a novelty to find the diseased plant 

 placed in the foreground, and the general external conditions, apart 

 from the parasite, made the subject of careful and searching ob- 

 servation. This is, in fact, the distinctive note of the book— the 

 truly practical character of the author's oar, for the study of the 

 disease, and the mode of its operation. Authors hitherto have con- 

 cerned themselves with the plant merely us so much food for the 



Y , ..t tu- s h i* ud\ is the disease of the hos-tf The 



book is no mere account of labours in this held; every page bears 

 the marl; of its author's ir-smity, skill, and independent thought. 

 Very few books indeed among the recent additions to botanical 

 literature contain so much real thinking combined with acute 



rration, in place of the long-winded, 

 turgid sentences crammed with irrelevant pedantry one is accus- 

 tomed to wade wearily through in search of the gist of the m ^^ r - 



style in the English version. In fact, one can' hardly sufficiently 

 praise the excellence of his performance of a task that is commonly 

 a thankless one. There is always a strong inclination to regard a 

 translation mainly as a thing to be found fault \\ its and it is there- 

 fore all the more pleasant to be able to say that this part of the 

 work is well and truly done. The excellence of the illustrations 

 adds greatly to the value of the book. G. Iff, 



