202 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



REVIEWS. 



A JSIanual of Structural Botany : an Introductory Text-hook for 

 Students of Science and Pharmacy. By Henry H. Eusby, 

 M.D. Pp. viii. 248, with 599 illustrations. J. & A. Churchill. 

 Price 10s. M. net. 



This book, though bearing the imprint of English publishers, 

 is written in American and printed in America. Such peculiarities 

 of spelling as "luster " and "center" which result from this origin 

 are less likely to be of consequence to English students than the 

 numerous technical terms, many of them new, in which several 

 of our Transatlantic friends seem to delight. The purism which 

 substitutes "perigone" for "perianth" seems to us excessive, and 

 we fail to see any advantage in terming flowers without essential 

 organs "neutral" instead of "neuter." Dr. Eusby styles the 

 fruit-head of CompositcB an " anthodium " but the individual 

 cypselae "akenes," comparing them to the nut or " nuca " in 

 Fagus of which there may be several in a "glans," which he 

 styles a fruit, although the product of several flowers. If there 

 is to be any logic in terminology, it is surely misleading to use 

 this term " anthodium" also for the flower-head. 



As the type is large, the amount of matter in the volume is 

 not very great, and the description sometimes becomes little more 

 than a glossary. The all but complete ignoring of function im- 

 parts a dryness to such a treatment of mere form as may well 

 repel the student ; whilst, as it is part of the author's theory of 

 teaching — a theory with which we do not agree — to confine the 

 first-year student to the simple microscope, histology is also 

 omitted. The endeavour to give much information in a small 

 space has sometimes resulted in obscurity, as, for example, in the 

 following passage : — 



"The ancestral organ and its developed product are called 

 Homologues of each other, and an Homology or Afiinity is said to 

 exist between them. For example, the leaf of a plant, and the 

 petal of its flower, which we assume to have developed through 

 the modification of the leaf, are homologues of one another. When 

 they are only similar, without any genetic relationship, they are 

 Analogues of each other, and Analogy exists between them." 



Now leaves and petals can never be analogous, as grammati- 

 cally they are here said to be. This mention of "the modification 

 of the leaf " strikes us as somewhat old-fashioned ; and it is surely 

 taking a very narrow view of teratology to speak of it as referring 

 only to " abnormal retrograde metamorphosis." As the author 

 says, " only an insignificant portion of the Materia Medica includes 

 the bodies of flowerless plants, so that the great division of 

 Cryptogamic botany, as regards its detailed treatment, is not 

 essential to Pharmacognosy." This being so, the one chapter of 

 eleven pages devoted to them seems to us a mistake. On the 

 other hand, the brief chapters devoted to the laws of nomenclature 

 and to the collection and preservation of specimens are excellent. 



The numerous illustrations, though largely drawn from un- 



