168 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXIII. 
with many of the books which have been issued for students of a 
higher grade than those technically for children. The facts brought 
forward are those usually taught only in books for the higher grades, _ 
but they are presented in such a way as to be equally intelligible to 
“children,” with the farther advantage that the significance of the 
detail is never lost sight of — an advantage inestimable in its results. 
In the headings to the chapters, too, the author has displayed great 
ingenuity, and the results are not open to such criticism as may 
be directed toward those of some popular books and articles on 
botanical subjects. 
The most unsatisfactory features of the book are the illustrations. 
They are too coarse to convey the idea desired in most cases, and 
the grace and delicacy of most of the plants figured have been lost 
entirely. : 
We feel that the teacher in California who attempts to realize from 
“nature study ” in the lower grades that which is hoped for from it, 
will find a way pointed out by this book which is both clear and 
certain, and that the teachers in other states will realize their need 
of a similar book and find much assistance by using it and adapting 
it to their local needs. W. A. SETCOHELL 
Van Tieghem’s Eléments de Botanique.? — While the first vol- 
ume of this text-book, as would be expected from the author’s many 
important contributions to vegetable anatomy and morphology, pre- 
sents a clear and sound statement of this part of botany, the second 
volume, in the present edition, merits special mention as being the 
first readily accessible synopsis of the vegetable kingdom in which 
the dicotyledonous flowering plants are classified according to their 
seed and ovule structure along the line laid down by Professor Van 
Tieghem in a series of articles published some two years ago.’ 
Excluding the Nymphzacee, which, with the Graminez, he places 
in a class considered as being exactly intermediate between the 
Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons, the author divides the latter 
into two subclasses, Insemineæ and Semineæ, the first destitute of 
detachable seeds at maturity of the fruit, and the second bearing 
seeds. The first of these is then divided into groups marked by the 
presence or absence of transient ovules (which, when present, are 
1 Van Tieghem, Ph. Ziéments de Botanique. Troisième édition. Paris, Mas- 
son et Cie., 1898. 2 vols., 12 mo. i. Botanique générale. ii. Botanique spéciale. 
2 Van Tieghem. Sur les Phanérogames sans graines, formant le groupe des 
Inséminées, Comptes Rend. 124: 22 mars-3 mai, 
