982 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. `[VoL. XXXIII. 
elementary botany, and is to be followed by another volume cover- 
ing the second half-year. It is a logically conceived book, clearly 
written and well printed, and illustrated with a series of figures each 
of which is rightly considered by the author to be worthy of as 
much study as a page of text. Though written with the expressed 
purpose of accompanying a laboratory course, in which frequent 
trips to the woods are advised, it is a book which is likely to be 
read from cover to cover by any bright boy or girl who picks it up 
and who knows out-of-door life; and it is a book which can do no 
harm if so read, for its touch with nature is so close, and verification 
of the chief elements is made so easy, that only a person of the most 
superficial tendencies could lay it down without turning at once to 
the plants about which it speaks. The author is to be congratu- 
lated on the happy manner in which he has contributed, as he very 
modestly styles it, another suggestion as to the method of teaching 
botany in secondary schools. T. 
The Botanists of Philadelphia.!— It is always interesting to 
know what manner of men one’s confrères are, and although the 
barrier of space is now more nearly overcome than it was a genera- 
tion ago, it is at best only bridged, and many co-workers in the 
amiable science know each other even yet only through their publi- 
cations, or at most fragmentary correspondence. Dr. Harshberger’s 
volume on the men who have made Philadelphia famous in the 
botanical world gives much information that will be welcomed every- 
where, and the numerous portraits which enrich it add not a little to 
its value. The Bartram coat of arms forms an appropriate frontis- 
piece, and the text is enlivened by many views of historic objects, or 
the beautiful scenery along the Wissahickon. Six appendixes give 
information concerning organizations, publications, and other matter 
more or less pertinent to the biographic details which constitute the 
greater part of the book, and a general index facilitates the finding 
of desired items. T. 
An Important Bibliographic Aid.*— In a massive volume, form- 
ing Additional Series III of the Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous 
Information, the director of the great English garden has given to 
1 Harshberger, J. N. The Botanists of Philadelphia and their Work. Phila- 
delphia, 1899. xii, 457 PP- 
2 Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. London, 1899. 
viii, 790 pp. 8vo. Price seven shillings and sixpence. 
