No. 395-] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 907 
the highest degree desirable, though extremely difficult of realization. 
The very timely work by Dr. Ganong, however, promises to bring this 
ideal much nearer than heretofore. In Zhe Teaching Botanist he has 
brought together in convenient form the best experience of our lead- 
ing botanists as to the place which botany should occupy, and the 
best methods of presenting it with the greatest educational effect. 
It is in no sense a text-book, but it may be more appropriately called 
“ teacher’s guide,” occupying a field distinctly apart from the usual 
text-book. 
After noting that botanical teaching is in a state of very rapid 
expansion and transition, and the unprecedented demand for a teach- 
ing that shall be more extensive, more thorough, and more representa- 
tive of the present state of science, the author discusses The Place 
of Botany in Education, What Botany is of most Worth, and Things 
Essential to Botanical Teaching — chapters which are rich in sugges- 
tive thought and well merit the careful perusal of every conscien- 
tious and enterprising teacher. Botanical Books and their Uses adds 
much to the value of the work. 
The second part is devoted to The Principles of the Science of 
Botany, in which is given an outline of a series of studies, illustrated 
by simple experiments which are well within the range of ordinary 
school work, and for which apparatus of a very simple and inexpen- 
sive kind will suffice. : 
The work marks a distinct advance in school methods and should 
be in the hands of every teacher. DPP 
Massee’s Plant Diseases.’ In an introduction of fifty-three pages 
the author gives a short general account of fungi, the precautions to be 
used in preventing and combating diseases caused by them, and details 
concerning fungicides and spraying. The main part of the volume 
is devoted to descriptions of the principal diseases due to fungi in all 
parts of the world, giving the popular and scientific names, simple 
descriptions of the fungi and the effects they produce on the plants 
they attack, together with notes on the means of prevention as far as 
they are known. References are also given, to which the reader is 
directed for further information. The accounts of the special dis- 
eases follow the systematic order of the fungi which cause them, 
rather than the arrangement followed in some treatises where the 
1 Massee, George. A 7ext-Book of Plant Diseases eae by Cryptogamic Para- 
sites. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1899. Small 8vo, xii + 458 pp., 92 
figs. 
