. ] = or are not thought worth his trouble. Huckleberries and 
t 
116 BOTANY. 
appearance. -The proportion of those who buy the book and ac- 
. tually read it; however, is decidedly smaller than in the case of the 
first mentioned book. It is a work which. gives an excellent 
summary of the present state of botany as it exists in Germany, a 
particularly, of the results of recent studies in the- ¢ryptogams, — 1 
and, as such, is a valuable book of reference for the special student’ 
and professor. It is much too intricate and fall of microscopic 
details to be easily intelligible to the general reader. It is by no 
means the case; as some suppose, that the average botanical 
student in- Germany .is ina condition to profit by Sachs 
Lehrbuch. In many places, without previous study of the lower 
forms of vegetable life, the book is quite ee The 
text and woodcuts are excellent. —W. G. F 
Tue Mortusks or Western Norra AMERICA.* — Under this | 
title Dr. Carpenter reprints the reports‘ made by him to the British : 
3 Association, with other papers, which will make the volume of much 4 
value to mmalacologiste. > 
BOTANY. 
- . WERE THE Faorre MADE FOR MAN, OR pip MAN MAKE THE 
Fruits ?—These need not be taken as mutually exclusive propo- 
. Sitions ; for as “ God helps those who help themselves,” and man 
work i in this respect is mainly, if not wholly, im directing 
course or tendency of Nature, so there is a just sense in which we 
may say “ the art itself is Nature,” by which the greatest triumph’ 
of horticultural skill have been accomplished. Moreover Is 
“not one of those naturalists who would have: you believe t 
nothing which comes by degrees, and in the course of nates 
_ to be attributed to Divine power.: . 
ees answer I should give to the question, as we thus put it, is: 
sL Some fruits were given to man as they are, and he has only 
S and consumed them. But these are all minor fruits, 
such as have only lately come within the reach of civilized 
_ Ties, persimmons and papaws are examples, taken from = 
- Country. Whether even such fruits have or have not been 
a course of i improvement, irrespective of man, is another que 
E EEO 3 
n us Collecti 252. Washington, Dec- o pp: 
