802 Genera Notes. [ August, 
stranger plant, exciting in it the production of a conjugating 
tube. I may say in conclusion that the position of the filaments 
and their appearance, under the microscope, precluded the suppo- 
sition of an accidental juxtaposition —Charles E. Bessey. 
More Poputar Botany.—A recently published little book, 
“Talks Afield,” by Professor L. H. Bailey, adds another to the 
short list which this country as yet affords of readable scientific 
books on plants. We need not repeat here what we have said 
over and over again as to the duty of scientific men to prepare 
authoritative books which shall be written in non-technical lan- 
guage for the great non-scientific public. The author of the book 
mentioned has recognized this duty, and has given us a most 
readable as well as accurate volume. Twenty pages or so are 
given to a popular account of the greater groups of the vegetable 
kingdom, and then some of the most interesting features of flow- 
ering plants are taken up, as the flower, the stem, the rose family, 
the composite family, a peep at the inside, the sexes of plants, 
cross-fertilization, etc., etc. 
We quote from pp. 74 and 75, as an example of our author's 
style: “ The plant through its roots takes in various compounds 
which are dissolved in water. These compounds contain carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, iron, potassium and other 
materials, The plant takes these solutions in through its roots 
by a modification of the phenomenon known to physicists as 
osmose, a sort of soaking-in process. The pressure exerted by 
the liquid as it comes into the root through this osmotic action 
forces the ‘sap’ upwards, but the chief cause of its rise is to be 
found in another fact: the stomata on the under surface of the 
leaves are open if the weather is clear and moist, and water is 
constantly evaporating from them. As fast as this evaporation 
takes place more water is needed. A demand is made upon the 
cells in the interior of the leaf which contain more water than 
those near the stomata, and as these interior cells lose some of 
their water they in turn call upon cells still more distant, and so 
on until the call is made all through the stem, and to the minute 
root-hairs which derive their water from the earth. This water 
does not flow upwards in tubes or cells, but it is soaked up 
through the thick walls of the wood-cells, and it keeps soaking 
upwards as fast as evaporation pumps it out through the leaves. 
The publishers, Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., of Boston, 
have given the book a neat dress, and sell it for the reasonable 
Price of one dollar, i 
ugust 26th to September 2d). Arrangements have already 
e made for excursions at low rates to the very interesting 
