THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



39 



students and many of the younger generation of botanists will 

 recall with gratitude the kindly words of encouragement re- 

 ceived from him. This mag"azine counted him among its 

 strongest supporters. He was a frequent contributor to its 

 pages and was ever ready to extend its circle of readers. 

 Modern botany, with its passion for exact measurements, for 

 the investigation of the minute, and the cataloguing of the in- 

 significant, nO' longer produces botanists of Dr. Bessey's stamp. 

 In the passing of such men, however, science loses a certain 

 charm which no amount of present day studies can replace. 



BOOKS AND WRITERS 



That L. H. Bailey's 'Tiant Breeding" is a rather remark- 

 able book may be adduced from the fact that since its first ap- 

 pearance in 1895 it has gone through four editions, has been 

 reprinted nearly a dozen times and has been translated into 

 French and Japanese. Nor does its popularity seem to wane, 

 for a fifth ''new revised" edition has just been issued by the 

 Macmillan Company. This new book has been entirely re- 

 written by Arthur W. Gilbert and is, of course, up-to-date in 

 all phases of the subject tO' which it relates. Students familiar 

 with the earlier editions will not find much change in the ar- 

 rangement of the text — the titles of the chapters are essentially 

 the same— but the pages are larger and there are 150 more of 

 them, a fact which indicates the growth of the subject and the 

 amount of new matter necessarily added. In a series of appen- 

 dixes are given a glossary of technical terms used in plant 

 breeding, a list of books on plant breeding, an extended bibli- 

 ography O'i the subject from 1905 to the present and a series 

 of laboratory exercises which themselves cover nearly 75 pages. 

 Those interested in plant breeding cannot fail to be instructed 

 by this new edition of a book which has always been recognized 

 as authoritative. The price is $2.00 net. 



