206 
Notes on Recent Literature. 
proposed expedition,-—“ I am astonished at your news.... I am 
become such an old fogey that I am amazed at your spirit. For 
God’s sake do not go and get your throat cut. Bless my soul, 1 
think you must be a little insane. How I shall miss you, my 
best and kindest of friends. God bless you.” 1 
In 1881, the year before his death, Darwin wrote to Hooker,— 
“ For Heaven’s sake never speak of boring me, as it would be the 
greatest pleasure to aid you in the slightest degree.” 2 The 
letter deals with several points raised by Hooker connected with 
the approaching address to the Geographical Section of the British 
Association at York. From first to last throughout a period of 
over forty years, Hooker and Darwin were in constant and 
intimate correspondence: the opinions and facts contained in 
Darwin’s letters, and in the few from Hooker which have so far 
been published, are of great scientific value : but, after all, it is 
the intense human interest of the unbroken and progressive 
friendship that leaves the most lasting impression. 
1 Ibid, p. 337. 2 L. and L., Vol. Ill, p. 246. 
NOTES ON RECENT LITERATURE. 
Modern Systems of Classification of the Angiosperms. 
Handbuch der Systematischen Botanik. Von Dr. Richard R. v. Wettstein. 
Zweite, umgearbeitete Auflage. Mit 3692 Figuren in 600 Abbildungen und 
mit einer Farbentafel. Leipzig und Wien. Franz Deuticke. 1911. 
Vortrdge iiber Botanische Stammesgeschichte. Ein Lehrbuch der Pjlanzensystematik. 
Von J. P. Lotsy. Dritter Band : Cormophyta Siphonogamia, erster Teil. 
Mit 661 Abbildungen im Text. Jena. Gustav Fischer. 1911. 
Foplanterne (Spermatofyter ). Med 591 i texsten trykte Figurer eller Figur- 
grupper. Af Dr. Eug. Warming. Kobenhavn og Kristiania. 1912. 
I N these three volumes, published almost synchronously, we have 
the views of three leading botanists of different nationalities 
on the classification of the plants. 
Wettstein’s 1 is a sumptuous volume dealing with the whole 
vegetable kingdom: Warming’s deals with the Gymnospermae and 
Angiospermae principally, with an introductory chapter of nearly 
seventy pages giving a comparative account of the life-history of 
the Bryophyta and Pteridophyta : Lotsy’s is the third volume of 
his well-known work, the first 440 pages being devoted to the 
Gymnospermae, and the second 510 to the earlier orders of the 
Angiospermae. In the present notice, only the portions of the 
above works which deal with the Angiospermae are discussed. 
None of the three authors accepts wholly the system of classi- 
1 The first edition was published in 1907. 
