THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



79 



It may be questioned whether the exercises in J. G. Coul- 

 ter's ''Notebook and Laboratory Manual" will give the student 

 a very connected idea of botany, but it will certainly induce him 

 to think about plants as living things and their relations and 

 uses to man. The notebook is arranged on the loose-leaf plan, 

 and consists of 72 exercises concerning various phases of plant 

 morphology, physiology and ecology, each exercise on a separ- 

 ate page. There is also space on each sheet for notes required. 

 The Notebook has been made to accompany Coulter's ''Plant 

 Life and Plant Uses", but it is not necessarily restricted to that 

 book, and it is likely to be welcomed by teachers in schools 

 where living plants are still used in botany. Those who are 

 teaching about outdoors indoors will of course stick to their 

 charts, microscopes, and their dried and pickled specimens. 

 The Notebook is published by the American Book Company. 



California continues to furnish attractive subjects for the 

 pen of Charles Francis Saunders. His latest work, issued from 

 the press of McBride, Nast & Company, New York, is entitled 

 "With the Flowers and Trees of California." It is not, how- 

 ever, a manual for naming the wildflowers as the title might 

 suggest. It is a book about the more familiar plants that the 

 visitor tO' California may encounter and discusses their uses, 

 origin, folklore and general manner of life in a way that ought 

 to= appeal to the tenderfoot intent on knowing something of the 

 vegetation of that flowery part of the world. The author has 

 a fresh and pleasing style which is far to be preferred to the 

 technical jargon of the closet naturalist, and no doubt his book 

 will find a wide circle of readers. Visitors to California, es- 

 pecially, ought to find it pleasant reading on the way. Half 

 the interest in a new country is found in the differences in the 

 outdoor world which it presents, and a book which adds tO' the 

 interest by telling something about the difTerences is a desirable 

 acquisition. The book contains 276 pages and is well illus- 

 trated from photographs by the author and color plates by 

 Elizabeth Hallowell Saunders. The price is $2.50 net. 



