Practical Botany

Abstract

THE first edition of Part I. of Profs. Bower and Vines's “Practical Botany” was published in 1885 (see NATURE, vol. xxxii. p. 73); and during the three, years that have elapsed the book has become familiar in all botanical laboratories, and has proved an important aid to the work of both teachers and students. This first part deals with the Phanerogams and Pteridophytes. Part II., completing the work, appeared only last year (see NATURE, vol. xxxvii. p. 28), and thus the former part has reached a second edition while its companion volume is still a new book. In preparing the new edition, Prof. Bower has no longer had the active co-operation of Dr. Vines; though, as explained in the preface, the chapters originally contributed by the latter have been almost oentirely embodied in the present work. A short account of the book as it now stands may be of service to the readers of NATURE, for as compared with the former edition it has undergone considerable rearrangement and extension. In both these respects the first three chapters, which are introductory to the study of the types, show important changes. The book begins with a list of apparatus, and of the more ordinary reagents, the mode of preparation of which is described. A more detailed list of reagents is now given in the first of the new appendices at the end of the volume.

A Course of Practical Instruction in Botany.

By Prof. F. O. Bower Part 1. Second Edition. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1888.)