Recent Literature. 47 
togamy, anemophilous and entomophilous flowers, dichogamy, hete- 
rogamy, etc., etc., occur. Not less striking is the contrast between 
the new and the old in the chapters which treat of the flowerless 
plants. Half a century ago the spores of the Equisetaceze were still 
doubtfully discussed: the sporangia of ferns were supposed to be 
transformed leaves, and the search for their stamens and pistils had 
scarcely been given up. In these and the mosses—in fact, through- 
out the whole of the Cryptogams—there was no hint, as yet, of 
sexual organs. Compare these crude paragraphs with the concise 
and lucid exposition given in the new Elements, where the same 
groups of Cryptogams are discussed--but how differently! Pteri- 
dophytes and Bryophytes are given modern characters and a modern 
treatment. Thallphytes are briefly treated under Algæ, Lichens 
and Fungi, although with the statement that “of late it has been 
made most probable that a lichen consists of an alga and a fungus 
eonjoined ;” and, further, that “ botanists are in the way of bringing 
out new classifications of the Thallophytes, as they come to 
understand their structure and relations better.” 
When the earlier book was written Linnæus had been dead 
but sixty years, and his system had still so strong a hold that 
eighteen pages were given to an exposition of it and a discussion 
of the question of supplanting it with something better; and the 
Natural System stood so much in need of argument that forty-four 
pages were given to it. In the new book a short paragraph is all 
that remains of the discussion of the Linnean System, and less than 
two pages suffice for the Natural System. 
It need only be said that not only do these contrasts show us 
what advances have been made in botany in half a century, but a 
comparison of these two books shows, still more, the remarkable 
growth and perennial youth of the master-mind who wrote them. 
It is not given to many men to live to see such great changes in 
the aspect of a science as has been the good fortune of Dr. Gray, 
and still fewer have had the strength or ability to adapt themselves 
to the new views and theories. 
The new book has so much to commend in it that we are loath 
to lay it down. We particularly like these sentences in the preface : 
“ No effort should be made to commit technical terms to memory. 
Any term used in describing a plant or explaining its structure can 
be looked up when it is wanted, and that should suffice.” And this 
one, on page 156: ‘ Even the beginner in botany should have some 
idea of what Cryptogamous plants are, and what are the obvious 
distinctions of the principal families.” We like the adoption of the 
spelling, Phanerogam, and the names Pteridophyta and Bryophyta, 
and the abandonment of the “superfluous” terms frond and stipe 
and replacing them with leaf and petiole, in describing the structure 
o ferne:—Charles E. Bessey. 7 
