504 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



sixteen times — eleven times more than that of either Correns or de Vries. Indeed, 

 many passages from East's writings are quoted, and it is their number, perhaps, 

 which accounts for a certain amount of monotony in the words introducing the 

 citations. The following passages will make this clear. "A statement by East 

 on this point is pertinent" (p. 112) ; " In conclusion, the following quotation from 

 East is pertinent " (p. 131); "A law which East has formulated in reference to 

 xenia is pertinent" (p. 151) ; "A statement by East on the 'value of heterozygosis 

 in evolution' is pertinent" (p. 167). On p. 48, however, there is a welcome 

 variant, "An ingenious theoretical answer to this pertinent question has been 

 suggested by East." It is true that the authors say that the book is entirely 

 inadequate as a work of reference, and much representative material has been 

 omitted, but it would not have been difficult to have made such a selection of 

 material as to give readers a more accurate idea of those who have built up the 

 study of genetics. 



This lack of balance in citation is the feature of the book that will chiefly excite 

 criticism. There are, however, some minor points which deserve attention. On 

 p. 49 it is stated that we cannot explain the mechanism of the transmission of the 

 stimulus in the sensitive plant. Now, as theories to account for the transmission 

 of this stimulus have been put forward by, for example, Sachs and Pfeffer, 

 Haberlandt, and Ricca, the statement of the authors is not exact. Inexactness also 

 appears in the short literature lists at the ends of the chapters. For instance, on 

 p. 62 there is a reference " Czapek, P. and M. E., Biochemie der Pflanzen, 

 Jena, 1913." Now, the first volume of the second edition of a work with this title 

 was published at Jena in 1913, and it is by a man named Czapek, but there is onlv 

 one of him and his initial is F. On p. 176 Keeble and Pellew are cited as 

 publishing in Genetics for 1910, whereas this journal first made its appearance in 

 1916. The reference should be to The Journal of Genetics. 



The book is produced in the excellent fashion characteristic of the University 

 of Chicago Press. 



W. S. 



Fundamentals of Botany. By C. Stuart Gager, Director of the Brooklyn 

 Botanic Garden. [Pp. xix + 640.] (Philadelphia : P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 

 1916. Reprinted, 1917. Price $1. 50 net.) 



An introductory textbook of Botany can do little in the way of introducing 

 fundamental facts not contained in already existing elementary textbooks. Novelty 

 must lie rather in the mode of presenting the material and the space devoted to 

 the various aspects of the subject dealt with. Although Dr. Gager's book does 

 indeed introduce a certain amount of material not usually found in existing text- 

 books — notably in regard to the Economic Importance of Fungi, and on Heredity 

 and allied questions— it is chiefly on account of the way that the whole subject is 

 presented that the book is so thoroughly to be recommended. The majority of 

 elementary textbooks of botany of the last twenty or thirty years are good 

 introductions to the study of plant morphology, containing somewhat supple- 

 mentary remarks in the nature of a rather disheartening introduction to plant 

 physiology. Gager's Fundamentals of Botany is rather an introduction to the 

 study of the Living Plant. One of the things an introductory course of study 

 in botany should do, says the author, is to teach the student the fundamental 

 elementary facts concerning plant life, and it is in this presentation of plants as 

 living organisms rather than as varied structures that Gager's book is an advance 



