118 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



In the old days students of plant anatomy were content 

 with sections cut with a dull razor, but the advances of botany 

 have made necessary a more refined technique until now, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Charles J. Chamberlain, author of ''Alethods in 

 Plant Histology", the pollen grain of the lily, which, placed 

 upon a dark background, is barely visible to the naked eye, 

 can with modern methods be "cut into fifty sections, the sec- 

 tions can be mounted and stained, without getting them out of 

 order, a photomicrograph can be made from the preparation 

 and a lantern slide from the photograph, and finally there ap- 

 pears upon the screen a pollen grain ten feet long with nuclei 

 a foot in diameter, nucleoli like baseballs and starch grains as 

 large as walnuts." Dr. Chamberlain's book is intended to intro- 

 duce students to the modern methods which make such per- 

 formances possible, and the fact that this is the third revised 

 edition indicates that it is meeting the requirements. There 

 are more than 300 pages in the present edition which begms 

 with general directions for sectioning, staining and mounting, 

 with a chapter on lantern slide making, and ends with special 

 directions for work in all the plant groups. A large number 

 of illustrations explain the text and incidentally supply exam- 

 ples of what may be done by the methods described. The 

 author has not made the mistake of assuming more knowledge 

 on the part of the pupil than he actually possesess and the di- 

 rections in consequence are clear enough for the novice to as- 

 similate. A valuable feature of the book is found in the com- 

 ments of the author which are lucid, sensible, and always in- 

 teresting. The book is published by the University of Chicago 

 Press at $2.25 net. 



A large number of botanists — possibly all of them — were 

 interested in birds before plants claimed their attention, and 

 many still retain their interest in ornithology. To all such the 

 biography by \\'illiam H. Dall, entitled "Spencer FuUerton 

 Baird," should prove of unusual interest. Like his friend. 



