Review: 
356 
“ It is important to call attention to the fact that the book has 
been prepared for the use of undergraduate students. It does not 
represent our conception of graduate work.” [This explains the 
absence of any citation of literature]. “ Still less has this book 
been written for our professional colleagues, who will notice what 
they may regard as glaring omissions. Such omissions must be 
taken to express a deliberate judgment as to what may be omitted 
with the least damage to the undergraduate student. The motive 
is to develop certain general conceptions that are felt to be funda¬ 
mental, rather than to present an encyclopedic collection of facts. 
This purpose has demanded occasionally also a greater apparent 
rigidity of form in general statement than is absolutely consistent 
with all the facts; but it was a choice between a clear and 
important conception for one with no perspective and a contra¬ 
diction of large truths by isolated facts, resulting in confusion.” 
The section on Morphology is strictly evolutionary in treat¬ 
ment. It has nothing by way of preface to the study of Mor¬ 
phology, but begins at once with the Myxomycetes, and considers 
the groups of the plant-kingdom up to the Angiosperms, so far as 
possible in phylogenetic sequence. The style is characterised by an 
extreme lucidity and conciseness which it is difficult to over-praise. 
There are extremely few ambiguous or obscure sentences in the 
entire section. The treatment is necessarily highly condensed, 
and this condensation accounts for an impression of “ hardness ” 
that the reader sometimes receives, but the rigorous selection of 
material which has been carried out has been effected with such 
care, and for the most part with so nice a judgment, as to leave the 
impartial critic little reason indeed to justify the authors’ fear that 
“ glaring omissions ” may be noticed by their professional col¬ 
leagues. Description and consideration are alike of a very high 
order of merit. At the end of the treatment of each larger group 
of plants “ Conclusions ” summarise the characters of the 
group and relate it to others, so that the mind is naturally carried 
along the various lines of descent which are indicated. 
This part of the book contains no less than 618 text-figures in 
282 pages. They are very largely original, and so far as we have 
seen, without exception well chosen, extremely clear and excellently 
reproduced. 
The short chapter on Organic Evolution at the close of the 
section on Morphology is perhaps less satisfactory. There is no 
fault to be found with its actual statements, which maintain the 
