31 AUGUST 1889, Page 24

Cryptogamic Botany. By A. W. Bennett and G. Murray. With

378 Illustrations. (Longmans and Co.)—If, ELS the writers say, no general handbook of cryptogamic botany has appeared since 1857, it is time indeed that the gap was filled. The labours of foreign investigators have provided plenty of material, which in the present vohune has evidently been pretty largely used, both in matter and illustrations ; Be Bary especially, in the fungi, mycetozoa, and protophyta. The writers make an attempt at anglicised terminology ! The " confusion " is indeed becoming "worse confounded." This is a very full volume, and capitally illustrated ; cryptogamic students will not, we are sure, be un- grateful for it ; it is something, after all, to have so much in one volume.