Recent Literature 



With such a history, stretehing back as it does through more than 

 half a century, it is not to be wondered at that the work is conservative 

 to a marked degree. The sequence of families can differ little from 

 that adopted nearly sixty years ago, and in this fascicle the citation of 

 authorities, the matter of nomenclature, etc., have been made to con- 

 form as far as possible to the treatment accorded them seventeen years 

 ago. This extreme conservatism is to be regretted, since science is more 

 productive just as its followers are least tied by the traditions of the 

 past. Yet, with all its conservatism, the Synoptical Flora will be in- 

 valuable, and every systematic botanist will hope that health and 

 strength may not fail the present editor before his task is completed. 

 —Charles E. Bbs8KT. 



The Natural History of Plants. 1 — About seven years ago the 

 eminent professor of botany in the University of Vienna, gave to the 

 botanical world a book under the title Pfianzenleben, with which bot- 

 anists soon became familiar as a most useful work. Some time ago the 

 welcome announcement was made that the work was to be translated 

 and brought out simultaneously iu England and America. This has 

 now been accomplished, and the result is before us in four good sized 

 volumes, each called a " half- volume," which are attractive externally 

 and internally. On comparing the translation, as brought out by 

 Messrs Holt & Co., with the original, it must be conceded that the 

 former is the by far better done, both in the clearness of text and the 

 perfection with which the printer has brought out the illustrations. 

 The colored plates are especially well done, being printed from the 

 originals by the Bibliographische Institut of Leipzig. 



For those who have not seen the original, it may be well to say that it 

 presents in a readable manner (in a popular manner, we might »jr, it' 

 the word had not been so dreadfully abused) the main facts as to the 

 structure, biology, and physiology of plants. It is not a text book for 

 daily conning by the student, but it is rather a most interesting work to 



1 The Natural Hi*l<:r>j <\i Pin,,!.-, their forms, growth, reproduction and di-tri- 

 bution, from the German of Anton Kern, r mm of Botany in 



the Cmvt-r-ity of Vienna, by F. W. Oliver, M. A., D. Sc. Quain Professor of Bot- 

 any in University College, London, with the assistance of Marian Busk, B. Sc., 

 and Mary F. Ewart, B. Sc. With about 1000 original woodcut illustrations and 

 16 plates' in colors. New York : Henry Holt & Company, 2 vols., large 8vo. pp. 



