868 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 544. 



(Holt & Co.). The new book follows the old 

 one in plan, and to a considerable extent in 

 detail also. By abridgment of the sugges- 

 tions to the student (an improvement over the 

 old book) the author has been able to take up 

 more than twice as many plants, thus enabling 

 the teacher to make a better selection where 

 it is not possible to study all of them. Two 

 things are emphasized in the book, namely, 

 that structures of plants are related and more 

 or less perfectly adapted to the two primary 

 functions of nutrition and reproduction, and 

 that there has been a gradual evolution of 

 plants in the vegetable kingdom. The pur- 

 pose of this course in plant morphology is to 

 give the pupil broader views of plants and 

 their structure, and in this the author has 

 succeeded very well. The book should find 

 place in the better class of high schools. 



There is only one serious criticism to be 

 made on the book, and that is that in the 

 glossary the suggestions as to the original 

 meanings of the terms (given in parentheses) 

 are often very misleading. In another edi- 

 tion these suggestions should be wholly omit- 

 ted, or the roots from which the terms are 

 derived should be inserted, as was done in the 

 old book. 



PLANTS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 



The vegetation of the Bahama Islands is 

 lucidly sketched and discussed by Professor 

 Doctor W. C. Coker in a recent paper pub- 

 lished by the Geographical Society of Balti- 

 more. A short history of the botanical ex- 

 plorations of the islands is given, followed by 

 discussions of the composition and relation- 

 ships and distribution of the Bahama flora. 

 Annotated lists are given of the plants of 

 economic importance, including trees and 

 shrubs useful for their woods or leaves (20 

 species) ; medicinal plants (6 species) ; indig- 

 enous fruits (10 species) ; cultivated fruits 

 (25 species); ornamental trees (10 species). 

 Twenty-five to thirty pages are given to an 

 ecological discussion of the vegetation on the 

 different islands, followed by a systematic list 

 of all the species collected, beginning with 

 slime molds (11 species), and including algae 

 (50 species), fungi (22 species), lichens (40 



species), mosses and liverworts (16 species), 

 ferns (14 species) and flowering plants (423 

 species) — in all 580 species. Sixteen full- 

 page plates, including half-tone reproductions 

 of thirty-one fine photographs, complete this 

 instructive paper. 



RECENT BOTANICAL PAPERS. 



Professor Doctor Arthur finds (Bull. 103, 

 Indiana Expt. Station) that smut may be 

 destroyed in seed oats by the simple operation 

 of sprinkling the seed with a solution of for- 

 malin of a strength of one pound of the for- 

 malin to fifty gallons of water, using enough 

 water to make the oats moist enough ' to pack 

 in the hand.' It is then to be shoveled into 

 a pile and covered for two hours, when it is 

 ready for sowing. If preferred it may be 

 spread out and dried before sowing. — C. L. 

 Shear discusses the fungous diseases of the 

 cranberry (Farmers' Bull. 221, U. S. Dept. 

 Agr.), namely, 'blast,' 'scald,' 'rot' and ' an- 

 thracnose.' It is shown that these diseases 

 may be controlled by a proper application of 

 Bordeaux mixture. — ' The Shade Trees of Den- 

 ver ' (Bull. 96, Colorado Expt. Station), by 

 Professors Paddock and Longyear, possesses 

 more than local interest in that it records all 

 the trees not natives of Colorado which are 

 known to be growing in Denver. When it is 

 remembered that the elevation of the city 

 above sea level is exactly one mile, it is evi- 

 dent that the conditions are very different 

 from those where these exotic trees originated. 

 The growing of trees under such conditions 

 becomes an interesting experiment in the ac- 

 climatization of plants. — The latest ' Contribu- 

 tion ' from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard 

 University (No. XXIX.) includes descriptions 

 of new species of plants from the islands of 

 Margarita and Coche, Venezuela, by Dr. B. L. 

 Robinson. The announcement is made that 

 Dr. Robinson has in preparation a flora of the 

 islands. — The second part of Professor Gifford 

 Pinchot's ' Primer of Forestry ' has recently 

 appeared as Part II. of Bull. 24 of the United 

 States Bureau of Forestry. This part deals 

 with the practise of forestry, with work in the 

 woods, and with the relation of the forest to 

 the weather and the streams, and concludes 



