130 
Reviews. 
Part I. has been much improved, and its 200 pages contain an 
extraordinary amount of varied, accurate, and wonderfully condensed 
information on morphology, natural history and classification, 
treated throughout from a thoroughly modern evolutionary stand¬ 
point. Many of the sections, indeed, contain by far the best 
accounts of their respective topics to be found in the English 
language. The sections on the natural history of the flower, on 
the principles of classification, on evolution, and on geographical 
distribution, etc. may be especially mentioned for their excellence. 
The whole forms a reference work on these subjects that cannot 
fail to be of great use to travellers and others interested in plants, 
and also to regular botanical students. At the same time the treat¬ 
ment is too condensed to he altogether suitable as an actual text¬ 
book for the student, except under the guidance of a competent 
teacher. 
Of details very few seem open to serious criticism. Surface 
characters, not internal structure, are the best criterion of the 
limit between hypocotyl and primary root (p. 37). Enough stress 
is scarcely laid on the methods of reduction prevailing in the evo¬ 
lution of the flower (p. 69), and in this connexion Celakovsky’s view 
of the andrcecium of Fumaria, Capparidaceae and Crucifcrac should 
at least have been mentioned, since it is much more in accord with 
the general modern principles of floral morphology than the 
“chorisis” theory (pp. 70, 333, 416). 
The term “ ecology ” is employed in a wider sense than usual, 
as equivalent to “ natural history ” or “ Bionomics.” We think this 
a pity, since a word is wanted to express those relations of a plant to 
its surroundings dependent on what may be called “topographical” 
factors. 
Mr. Willis may be warmly congratulated on what is now a 
thoroughly excellent book. The typography and get-up are 
admirable, and the price cannot be complained of when we consider 
the enormous amount the book contains. 
The Classification of Flowering Plants. By Alfred Barton Rendle, M.A., 
I).Sc , F.L.S., Assistant in the Department of Botany, British Museum, etc. 
Vol. I., Gymnosperms and Monocotyledons. Cambridge University Press 
(Cambridge Biological Series), 1904. Pp. XIV. and 403. Price 10s. 6d. net. 
It is with pleasure that we open a book in English on systematic 
botany that is not a translation from the German. Dr. Rendle’s 
