No. 418.] NOTES AND LITERATURE. 867 
tell you that such interesting plants as the ferns, mosses, mush- 
rooms, and puffballs are cryplogams, and that therefore you should 
not try to read the stories they have to tell. But why call them 
cryptogams? ‘That is a terrible word, that ought to be blotted out 
of the English language. Why not call them plants, as they are? 
They are just as much God's creatures as the dandelion and thistle 
and smartweed are. They are just as interesting too, and mean as 
much in our lives as they do." 
Furthermore, it may be questioned whether some of the topics to 
which considerable space is given—as, for example, turgidity, 
plasmolysis, and various microscopic details — are really within the 
comprehension of young beginners. Every one who has studied 
children knows what confused and perverted ideas they will often 
get regarding matters of much greater simplicity: than belongs to 
some of the physiological topics here presented. It is hard enough 
to give college students clear ideas of microscopic mechanisms and 
life processes. 
Only a few errors of statement have been noticed, but there is one 
which is sure to bewilder the pupil On page 14 it is said of the 
bean that the embryo plant (meaning the plumule) is attached to 
the cotyledons. Then on page r9 it is asked if this small object 
which looks like a tiny plant is the embryo, and the reader is left to 
suppose that it is. Finally, on page 22 the reader is told most 
impressively that all inside the seed coat and its lining is the 
embryo, and that the embryo thus includes the cotyledons. 
F. L. S. 
A New Publication on Woody Plants. — Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
announce that they will issue next autumn the first part of a new 
publication, Trees and Shrubs, consisting of text edited by Professor 
Sargent, and plates from drawing by Mr. Faxon, pertaining to woody 
plants, particularly those adapted to the gardens of Europe and the 
United States, or of commercial or economic importance. The 
sample pages and plates that have been distributed with the pro- 
spectus show, as would have been expected, excellence in drawing 
and publication, and the happy mean between technicality and pop- 
ular writing which mark the Si/va is likely to be maintained by 
Professor Sargent in this new publication, which in size and general 
appearance will bear considerable resemblance to the Si/va. Two 
parts, each consisting of twenty-five plates and costing $5.00, are 
expected to appear yearly. — 
