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NATURE
[April 16, 1908
we have even been obliged to admit that Muskarin
is obtained from Amanita muscaria. 1 But now Dr.
Zellner has a further shock for us, and we find such
words as Kalzium, Zitronensaure, Glyzerin, Azetyl, &c,,
scattered throughout his pages. Thus (p. 97) Mykose
forms an “ Oktoasetylverbindung,” which is no doubt
chemically true, but, stated in this form, it seems to
jar upon the orthographic nerve of the average English
reader. All this is, of course, purely personal, perhaps
old-fashioned or narrowly insular, and has nothing
to do with the scientific merits of the work, which, as
has already been said, are of a very high order, and
every worker in the domain of plant chemistry will
be grateful to the author for having produced it.
R. Meldola.
BOTANICAL INSTRUCTION.
Plant Biology. A Text-book of Elementary Botany
arranged for Modern Methods of Teaching. By
Dr. F. Cavers. Pp. xvi + 460. (Cambridge: Uni¬
versity Tutorial Press, 1907.) Price 35. 6 d.
Laboratory and Field Manual of Botany. By J. Y.
Bergen and B. M. Davis. Pp. viii + 257. (Boston
and London : Ginn and Co., n.d.) Price 4s. 6 d.
Studies in Plant Life. By J. Adams. Pp. v+179.
(Dublin and Belfast: Fallon and Co., Ltd., n.d.)
Elementary Botany. By M. A. Liversidge. Pp. 128.
(London : Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1907.) Price
is. 6d. net.
Introduction to Elementary Botany. By Charlotte L.
Laurie. Pp. viii + 84. (London: Allman and Son,
Ltd., n.d.) Price is. net.
Our Woodlands, Heaths and Hedges. By r W. S.
Coleman. Pp. viii+141; with 8 plates. New
edition, entirely reset. (London : George Routledge
and Sons, Ltd., 1907.) Price is.
HE advocates of an exclusively experimental
course of study in the natural sciences are con¬
fronted with the difficulty of time limitations, so that
in practice it becomes necessary to strike a balance
between lecture and practical work. Dr. Cavers has
indicated in “ Plant Biology ” the lines of work
that he has found successful with training-college
students, in which the training is almost entirely
derived from observation and experiment. The
foundation of the course consists of experiments—of
which about three hundred and fifty are outlined—
in connection with the nature and function of parts
of the flowering plant; so far as possible the bean
plant is used as the type. Flower and soil, biology
and ecology provide a subsidiary section. The course
differs mainly from ordinary practice in excluding
the examination of selected types from the main
groups and in the general omission of flowerless
plants. With regard to the composition of the
subject-matter, the author deserves great commend¬
ation ; the arrangement is well planned, the ex¬
periments are generally simple and practicable, and
the information is contrived to make the student
I Tile familiar Chemisches Centra-l-BIatt has now become a Zentra.l-Bla.tt.
NO. 2007, VOL. 77]
think. A series of questions at the end of each
chapter can be used either by the student or his
instructor to gauge the progress that is being made.
The appendices also contain much useful matter;
hints on practical work refer to special opportunities
afforded month by month; a summary of Engler’s
system of classification is provided, and a glossary
of botanical terms.
The manual prepared by Mr. Bergen and Dr. Davis
is a practical handbook primarily arranged in accord¬
ance with their text-book “ Principles of Botany.”
The first part relates to the structure and physiology
of seed plants. The plan adopted of outlining the
instructions without detailed information that is left
for the student himself to discover is good, but the
authors have not been very happy in distinguishing
between more and less important facts or in system¬
atising the subject-matter. As an instance, it may¬
be cited that the description of a typical young
dicotyledonous stem is not particularly noted, while
the structure of the climbing dicotyledonous stem
receives undue prominence. The second part,_.indi¬
cating type studies of flowering and flowerless
plants, is more felicitous. Spirogyra forms a suit¬
able introduction for studying the cell in detail.
Pleurococcus, Vaucheria, Ulothrix, and GEdogonium
are chosen as the types of green algae, while refer¬
ence is also made to Ulva, Cladophora, and
Coleochaete. Microsphaera, the lilac-mildew, is
selected as the type of an Ascomycete, and the intro¬
duction of Marsilia is quite a desirable innovation.
Ecology is dealt with in the third section under the
headings of flower pollination, seed dissemination,
types of vegetation, &c. The remainder of the book
is devoted to accessory but valuable hints on re¬
agents, methods of fixing and staining, cultures of
the lower plants, and apparatus. Considered as a
whole, the authors have provided a useful manual
that presents a large amount of practical information
in a limited amount of space.
The small book written by Mr. Adams is of an
extremely superficial nature. Owing to generous
spacing and a large number of illustrations, the text
is less than would be expected. In the circumstances,
it would have been advisable to give more space to the
essentials of plant structure as exemplified in the
flowering plant and to have omitted the cursory de¬
scriptions of flowerless plants and plant habitats. The
author has taken pains to introduce facts of prac¬
tical importance to the agriculturist, such as fer¬
tilisers, dwarf shoots, &c., but there is a lack of
clearness and accuracy in some of the elementary-
definitions.
The limits of Miss Liversidge’s book are set bv
the intention of covering the syllabus of work for the
Oxford and Cambridge junior local examinations.
It is evident that it has also been written rather with
the view of giving facts for examination purposes
than of training the young mind. There are four
parts, assigned to external morphology, anatomy,
physiology, and systematic botany. The design of
the physiological part is good, but the experimental
© 1908 Nature Publishing Group
April 16, 1908]
NA TURE
555
Instructions could be materially improved. The
anatomical facts are clearly stated considering that
this part of the subject is much more advanced than
the rest of the book. But speaking generally, the
author has aimed at brevity, and in so doing has
sacrificed exactness; this is specially noticeable in
the course of external morphology, where several
mistakes and incomplete definitions occur.
The short introduction to elementary botany planned
by Miss Laurie is a direct antithesis to the last, as
the facts recorded are few, but they are deduced or
suggested so as to arouse interest and stimulate
experiment and thought. Written primarily for quite
small children, it shows how facts in the life-history
of plants may be taught from simple experiments,
such as the growth of mustard seeds in a bottle In
addition to morphology and the accompanying
physiology, there are chapters on interrelation between
plants and animals, climbing plants and colours ol
plants. Although the information is couched in a
form understandable by young children, the book
could be advantageously adopted as a first course for
older children, and might be profitably consulted by
many teachers as a guide to imparting instruction.
The observation of trees and shrubs is preeminently
suited for a nature-study class, and possesses the
advantage that there is much to be noted even during
the winter months. A short, concise manual or
primer at a modest price is an existing desideratum.
The volume written by Mr. Coleman compasses the
subject and certainly sells at a modest price, but it
fails to satisfy the want alluded to. The author has
culled much interesting information of a general and
historic nature, but there is an almost entire absence
of the numerous botanical features of interest, such
as winter buds, arrangement of leaves, &c., and for
identification the reader is mainly dependent upon the
illustrations. The notes on animals and insects
haunting the various trees and shrubs are so useful
that one wishes the author had given more space to
these facts of natural history. A list of British
lepidopterous insects the caterpillars of which feed on
certain plants is provided in an appendix.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS.
(]) Computation and Mensuration. By P. A. Lambert.
Pp. ix + 92. (New York: The Macmillan Co.;
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price
3 s. 6 d. net.
(2) A First Statics. By C. S. Jackson and R. M.
Milne. Pp. viii + 380. (London: J. M. Dent and
Co., 1907.) Price 4s. net.
(3) Practical Calculations for Engineers. By' C. E.
Larard and H. A. Golding. Pp. xiii + 455.
((London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price
6 s. net.
(i) ' I 'HE author says that the boys in the secondary
-I schools of America are not taught to apply
their mathematics independently, and consequently
find, on entering college, that they have difficulty in
xo. 2007, VOL. 77 ]
making effective use of their theoretical knowledge,
and this book is intended as a link between the school
and college courses, to be studied either at the end
of one or the beginning of the other.
The same deficiency is manifest in boys leaving our
schools, and in this country is being met by im¬
proved teaching combined with practical work in
the laboratory, as a regular part of the school
course.
The book is admirably planned and written, is
concise, neat in method and interesting, and meets
a real want in a worthy manner. It begins with
examples of direct measurement, approximate
numbers, and contracted arithmetic, estimating the
degree of accuracy by the number of decimal places;
perhaps the number of significant figures would have
been better. This is succeeded by examples of prac¬
tical geometry, including the construction and
measurement of triangles, and some squared-paper
work. Then follows the volume of a prismatoid, and
in later chapters on mensuration it is shown that the
prismoidal formula, or Simpson’s rule, is widely ap¬
plicable. There is a useful chapter on trigonometrical
computation, introducing very appropriately the
notion of a vector with examples of vector summa¬
tion. Logarithms and the slide rules are next con¬
sidered, followed by an interesting chapter on limits,
illustrated by several important convergent series.
The author always seizes on the salient points, is
never prolix, and the interest never flags; in each
chapter the student is well started on his way, then
provided with good and suggestive examples, and
wisely left to his own resources. Thus, although the
pages of the book are comparatively few, the usual
ground is covered, and a thorough and efficient train¬
ing in practical computation is provided. English
teachers would do well to consult this work.
(2) This text-book proceeds on easy lines, and the
student is provided with a wealth of examples
at every stage from which to choose, the answers
being collected at the end of the volume. In their
scheme the authors have considered “ the historical
order of development of the subject, as indicating
almost infallibly the line of least resistance.” Thus
in the first chapter the principle of the lever is intro¬
duced, and the law of moments for parallel forces is
established by simple experiments, then illustrated by
examples of ancient and modern steelyards and
balances, and finally applied to find the conditions of
equilibrium of three parallel forces in a plane. The
next two chapters deal with the parallelogram law
for forces at a point, the treatment being here again,
as always, experimental, graphical, and analytical,
with examples of useful applications in the arts. It is
not quite clear why the authors should substitute the
term “ geometric ” addition for vector addition, or
why arrow-heads should “ sometimes ” instead of
always be inserted in vector diagrams. In chap¬
ter iv. the principle of moments is again con¬
sidered, being now deduced from that of the parallelo¬
gram and applied to couples. Then follow sections
dealing with machines, friction, and centres of
© 1908 Nature Publishing Group