No. 380.) REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 605 
vania, shows abundant evidence of care and discrimination in its 
execution. The task of translation has evidently involved no small 
difficulty. There is no doubt that the German technical vocabulary 
in botany, partly from the greater plasticity and power of combination 
in the language sata partly from the patience and discrimination of 
the German investig , has developed a considerable number of apt 
and valuable descriptive terms which are without exact or generally 
recognized equivalents in the English. The precise German termi- 
nology for the varied structures which in English are loosely termed 
“bracts ” furnishes a case in point. In most instances Dr. Porter’s 
selection of terms seems excellent. Occasional renderings, such as 
haulm instead of the more general cu/m, for the German Halm, 
appear less fortunate. The phrasing of the translation is good, 
being exceptionally free from labored constructions and foreign 
idioms. One unfortunate change from the original German edition 
is the failure to indicate the limits of the individual authorship. 
This cannot, we believe, be too clearly shown in all joint productions. 
Professional botanists who are acquainted with the tastes and special 
pursuits of the Bonn staff, may not need to be told that anatomy or 
inner morphology was treated by Strasburger, physiology by Noll, 
general morphology of the cryptogams by Schenk, and of the 
phanerogams by Schimper, but the ordinary student using an English 
edition of the text-book will scarcely grasp by intuition the interesting 
details of this codperative plan. The print and general make-up of 
the translated edition are eminently satisfactory, although the small 
colored illustrations — presumably introduced at first for commercial 
rather than scientific or esthetic reasons—are not so carefully 
executed as in the original German edition. BLR 
Catalogo de Plantas Mexicanas (Fanerógamas).' — Dr. Urbina, 
the botanical director of the Mexican National Museum, has recently 
issued a large octavo of nearly 500 pages, enumerating about 3000 
Species of Mexican phanerogams. Authorities are duly cited and to 
some extent bibliography is given. Such exszcati are enumerated as 
are represented in the herbarium of the Museo Nacional, comprising 
chiefly the collections of Peñafiel in Hidalgo, Schaffner in San Luis 
Potosi, Bárcena in Jalisco, Urbina in the Valley of Mexico, and 
Pringle in various states of the republic. Numbers, localities, and 
dates of collection are also entered. The catalogue reflects credit 
1 Collated by Dr. Manuel Urbina, and published by the Museo Nacional, City 
of Mexico. 
