310 BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



Applied Economic Botany contains eleven chapters on the structure, 

 physiology and ecology of angiosperms ; one chapter each on the 

 gymnosperms, pteridophytes and bryophytes; two chapters on the 

 thallophytes (including bacteria) ; one each on forestry, plant diseases, 

 plant breeding and weeds; one on important families of economic 

 plants, and one on special exercises (additional study of economic 

 plants). The first four chapters take up seeds and the vegetative 

 organs of the mature angiospermous plant. The student is introduced 

 to enzymes early in the course in connection with the germination of 

 seeds. Roots, stems, leaves and flowers are treated in a manner 

 similar to that used in the Gray botanies. In the chapter on plant foods 

 and plant growth, the paragraph on "circulation" might have been 

 incorporated with that on "transfer of water," thus avoiding a mis- 

 leading term. Although cells are constantly referred to in preceding 

 chapters, the student first takes up the topic of cellular structure in 

 the eighth chapter. Plant diseases are discussed before either fungi 

 or bacteria. Gymnosperms are isolated from pteridophytes by chap- 

 ters on forestry, plant breeding, plant diseases and weeds. Ferns are 

 treated without reference to alternation of generations, although a dia- 

 gram of the life history is given, — but perhaps such a reference is in- 

 compatible with economic botany or applied botany. Spirogyra is 

 somewhat removed from the exalted position occupied in many sec- 

 ondary school texts as the "type" of green algae, — a fact to the credit 

 of the text, although it remains one of the two green algae figured. The 

 statement that "a large number of free-swimming cells known as 

 zoospores" are produced in Ulothrix, and that "in some cases these 

 free-swimming cells (gametes) unite in pairs and form zygotes," is not 

 likely to be very clear to the ordinary high school student (or teacher 

 either) without further explanation. 



In the glossary we learn that an antheridium is "the organ in crypto- 

 grams corresponding to the anther in flowering plants," and the 

 archegonium is "the organ in cryptograms corresponding to the pistil 

 of flowering plants." Such inaccuracies are inexcusable, even in an 

 elementary text. 



Although the author states that he has been mindful of the needs of 

 "those who study it (botany) as a cultural subject," such topics as 

 Mendel's Law, which can be presented in an elementary way in a per- 

 fectly intelligible form for secondary school students, and has been so 

 presented in other tests; alternation of generations; and response to 

 environment, are either omitted or are referred to in such a casual way 

 that they might as well have been left out. 



