168 
REVIEWS. 
July, 1889. 
A Handbook of Cryptogamic Botany. By A. W. Bennett and Geo. 
Murray, with 378 Illustrations. 473 pp. Brice 16s. Longmans, 
Green, and Co., 1889. 
The foundations of this handbook—the first published in the English 
language since 1857—are the works of Goebel and De Bary, whose 
methods are followed, and from whom and similar sources many of 
the illustrations are, by permission, borrowed. It is, therefore, a 
presentation of the biology and classification of cryptogams according 
to modern German methods, and every attempt has been made to 
include all recent discoveries up to the time of publication. The 
figures, as will be seen, are very numerous and seem to be all carefully 
chosen, so as to help the understanding of the text. It is natural to 
judge of the value of a book which traverses so wide a field by 
examining that portion of which one has the most intimate knowledge; 
and, estimating this by its treatment of the Fungi, it is not too much 
to say that it stands alone among English works in giving a com¬ 
prehensive view of the subject in its modern aspect. To one who has 
been confined to the old-fashioned treatment in vogue in English 
treatises on systematic mycology, it will be a revelation of a new world. 
A praiseworthy attempt is made to simplify the nomenclature of the 
parts described by anglicising the terminations; thus antherid, mycele, 
apothece , arcliegone are formed by dropping the usual ending, although 
prothallium , indusium, and others remain untouched ; and, as far as 
possible, the same term is used throughout for homologous bodies. 
One of the most enjoyable proofs of the independence of the authors 
in this respect is that they have refused to follow the debasing German 
practice of using the word gonidium instead of spore. It certainly 
requires a German mind to appreciate the charms of such a word as 
“ macrozoogonidium; ” megazoospore is sufficiently long. The reason¬ 
ing, moreover, by which the change was attempted to be enforced by 
German despots, was characteristically weak and pointless; if it is 
right to mark the distinction between sexually and asexually pro¬ 
duced means of multiplication by a difference of term (as, no doubt, 
it is), a comparison of previous nomenclature shows that the word 
“ spore ” has been used twenty times in the latter signification for 
once when it has been used in the former; and, therefore, convenience, 
which overrides all other considerations, requires us to invent a new 
term for the sexual product rather than for the asexual. Thus the 
authors of this work are no mere slavish copyists of German magnates, 
and even those who are acquainted with the original authorities will 
find much that is new and much that is interesting in their treatment 
of the subject. An especially well-written part is that which treats of 
the fossil vascular cryptogams. W. B. G. 
Young Collector Series. Land and Fresli-water Shells. By J. W. 
Williams, M.A., D.Sc. London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 
This little manual is undoubtedly one of the best of the series. It 
begins with a chapter on collecting land and fresh-water shells and their 
inhabitants ; then follows a capital description of the anatomy and 
physiology of the snail and fresh-water mussel. These latter chapters 
are admirable, and form a very important and valuable feature of the 
book ; they certainly ought to inspire the reader to investigate the 
differences in the soft parts of the various species in addition to 
collecting their shells. Then comes a classification of the group, with 
a minute description of the various British species and varieties ; a 
chapter on the geographical distribution of these, by Messrs. J. W. 
