450 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VO XXXII. 
Species, and a New Subgenus of Peromyscus from Mexico and 
Guatemala; A New Genus (Neotomodon), and Three New Species 
of Marine Rodents from the Mountains of Southern Mexico. Miller, 
J. S., Jr.: A New Rabbit from Margarita Island, Venezuela. Palmer, 
T. S.: Notes on the Nomenclature of the Cheiroptera. 
BOTANY. 
Pfeffer’s Physiology of Plants.’ — Only the first of the two 
volumes of Pfeffer’s P#anzenphysiologie has yet appeared, the second 
being still in preparation. So thoroughly is this book being rewritten 
that it is very likely that the translations of the first volume — the 
French translation to be issued by a Paris publisher unaided by any 
subvention, I believe, and the English one to be issued by the 
Clarendon Press of Oxford — will be out before the second volume 
of the German edition is ready. 
The plan of the work is the same as that of the first edition, the 
author confining himself to pure physiology, instead of enlarging 
the scope of the book to include that branch of physiology, cecology, 
or making more than passing allusions to the applications in agricul- 
ture, brewing, medicine, and surgery, of facts discovered and eluci- 
dated by plant physiologists. The book is a handbook, not a text- 
book ; a critical review of the contributions to plant physiology, and 
a statement of the facts as they appear in the light of past dis- 
coveries and present hypotheses. It is by no means a compilation, 
for in almost every part of the field Pfeffer has worked, or led his 
students to work, fruitfully. This fact lends additional value to the 
critical discussions of the work of other and sometimes disagreeing 
investigators, and to the appreciation of the difficulties in the way of 
making experiments, and of drawing conclusions therefrom, — an 
appreciation which gives deeper insight into a problem as well and 
lends patience to its discussion. 
In estimating the value of the book, for the facts, new and old, 
brought together for the first time in it, account must be made in 
equal amount of the skill and clearness with which defects in argu- 
ment, faults in conclusion, and overzeal in theorizing are pointed out. 
1 CAREA Ein mena der Lehre vom Stoffwechsel und Kraft- 
wechsel i Pflan Von W. Pfeffer. Zweite völlig umgearbeitete 
Auflage. co 7 pne Pisin 1897, Wilhelm Engelmann. 
