THE FERNS (FILICALES). Vol. II. By F. Q. Bower. (Cambridge
University Press. 30s.)—All students, not only in England, should be grateful to Cambridge for the publica- tion of the Botanical Handbooks. They are composed and published for the 'good of science and of research. Every gardener will enjoy the picture of the romantic Osmanli(' Regalia on the frontispiece ; but the rest of the book is severely for students. Yet Professor Bower—a botanist of imagination as well as knowledge—manages to illustrate the path evolution by a wholly admirable analysis of the living fern in relation to its ancestors preserved in the earth's strata ; and his ingenuity is always persuasive. When he permits himself the luxury, he has a real gift of literary description. The two volumes probably have no rival in the bibliography of the subject ; and they are luxuriously produced.
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