MOSSES AND LIVERWORTS.
Mosses and Liverworts. By T. H. Russell, F.L.S. With Illus- trations from Original Microscopic Drawings. (Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. 4s. 6d. net.)—This introduction to the study of a group of plants known to botanists as bryophytes is written with the least possible use of scientific phraseology. In speaking- of the archegonia and antheridia of mosses as "flowers "• Mr. Russell goes rather far in trying to avoid technical terms ; and the beginner is not taught at once to distinguish between flowering plants which produce seeds and cryptogams which , reproduce themselves by spores. The distinction is important, and confusion of mind may follow from neglect to realise it. Mr. Russell, who is an enthusiastic botanist, manages to secure his reader's interest. His book has much to commend it, and we do not know of any existing popular work of the kind already in the field. There is a chapter on collecting and preserving Specimens, also on microscope work, without which, unfor- tunately, little can be done in studying the lower plants. The plates are clear and excellently drawn, and there is a short glossary of terms used.
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