Books and Current Literature 



the bituminous matter found in this and similar coals is rather a 

 product of the modification of the natural waxy or cutinoid in- 

 filtration of the outer coats of innumerable spores (microspores 

 as well as macrospores), than the product of animal or algal de- 

 cay, as has been variously suggested. 



A book of 750 pages, entitled ".4 Manual of Poisonous 

 Plants," by Professor L. H. Pammel, has been announced. 

 There are promised numerous illustrations in which most of the 

 plants injurious to live stock of the United States are described 

 and figured, a bringing together of scattered literature, conven- 

 ient arrangement of subject matter, and adequate discussion of 

 injury from lower forms of plants like the moulds, mildews, 

 blights, and bacteria. In addition there are economic notes of 

 useful plants under each order and genus. The poisonous sub- 

 stances found in plants are given in each case, and the nature 

 of the poisoning and the remedy. The chapters on bacteria and 

 chemistry of poisons have been written by specialists. This 

 book is the outgrowth of many years' work by the author, in 

 classroom and laboratory, with the students of the veterinary 

 department of the Iowa State College. Numerous pertinent 

 notes, interspersed with many quotations, are presented in the 

 author's interesting style, and there is brought together in brief 

 compass a large amount of information that should render the 

 work both useful and attractive to the botanist and intelligent 

 stockman and layman, as well as a convenient text and technical 

 manual for the veterinarian. 



J. C. Blumer. 



In a very interesting paper read before the Bohemian 

 Academy of Sciences last year, Dr. Peklo describes two forms of 

 roots found in Monotropa Hypopitys L. Specimens growing 

 in soil rich in humus show the well-known hyphal sheath or 

 mykprhiza; while specimens growing in sandy or clay soil rela- 

 tively free from humus, show all degrees of the reduction of 

 the sheath, some being entirely free from the fungus. These 

 individuals have at the same time more extensive root systems. 

 Instead of the usual dense nests of short, closely set rootlets, there 

 appear long, sparsely branched roots, reaching in all directions 



