BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 249 



There is no doubt that the biological subjects, botany and zoology, 

 have been losing ground and that agriculture has been displacing them 

 in the high schools. There has been a feeling in many places, evidently, 

 that botany and zoology were not making good. Many biology teach- 

 ers believe that there is need of a closer connection of these subjects 

 with the "problems of every day"- — the animals and plants which help 

 us to live and enjoy living. A well known university teacher expressed 

 this idea in saying that the fundamental principles of botany can be 

 learned as well from a study of the garden as from unfamiliar plants. 

 "Practical" topics such as forestry, weeds, gardens and many others 

 approached in this way do not detract from the subject as a science, 

 and add much interest because familiar phenomena are explained. 



Science of Plant Life as a textbook has many attractive features. 

 The reviewer was much interested and very well pleased in his first im- 

 pressions of the book. The thing that is most striking is the originality 

 of the treatment of the subject matter of the seed plants. Topics like 

 the "Environment of Plants" and others of like nature pertaining to 

 the life of plants and the forces that influence them are used. But, 

 strange to say, having gone this far with seed plants, there is a relapse, 

 when the lower forms are taken up, into the usual series of studies. 

 How the book will work in actual class use cannot be predicted with 

 certainty, but a careful reading inclines us to believe that the style and 

 vocabulary are too technical for tenth grade pupils and that they will 

 have difficulty in reading and assimilating the subject matter. Most 

 authors of biological textbooks find it impossible to put away habits of 

 thought and speech used with fellow teachers and students for the sim- 

 plicity of style and thought needed to make these subjects clear to young 

 boys and girls with no such vocabulary or familiarity with science. 



On the whole we feel that Science of Plant Life has failed to meet 

 the real — we may almost say the desperate — need for a textbook of 

 botany, which shall be up to date with the present situation in the high 

 schools, in subject matter and method of approach, and presented in a 

 manner simple enough to interest high school students. The book is 

 worthy of consideration as the textbook situation now stands. — W. 

 Whitney. 



