5 DECEMBER 1908, Page 14

A TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY.

Text-Book of Botany. By Dr. Eduard Strasburger and others. Revised with the Eighth German Edition by W. H. Lang, M.B., D.Sc. (Macmillan and Co. 18s. net.)—The attention of students of botany may be called to a new edition of this well-known text- book. It is ten years since the first English edition was published. Botany has made great strides since then, and this third English edition has been brought up to date ; indeed, much of the German original has been rewritten. The work is divided into two parts. The first deals with morphology, or the structure of plants, and with physiology. The second part treats of the whole vegetable kingdom, from bacteria to composites. The illustrations, of which there are nearly eight hundred, are excellent. The coloured figures printed in the text are deserving of especial notice. It is a misfortune that so heavy a book, which could easily have been divided, has not been issued in two volumes. Dr. Lang, Lecturer on Botany in Glasgow University, is responsible for the trans- lation of the present edition. His labours have been satisfactorily discharged. Students are so well acquainted with the older editions that we need do no more than recommend this one to their notice. To buy an antiquated text-book is a disaster to a student. Hero the latest, or almost the latest, researches of botanists are embodied.