BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



Conditions Affecting the Potentiality of the Seed. — Kidd 

 and West have written a series of thoughtfully critical papers 1 which 

 have placed all botanists under obligations to them for another 

 piquant discussion of fundamental importance. It is gratifying to 

 note the increase in such resume's which have come in recent years 

 from the pens of our British colleagues. Their disussions are singu- 

 larly refreshing because they deal with fundamental questions instead 

 of the unessential, though less difficult questions usually studied. 



An apt quotation will illustrate this point. "A few fundamental 

 principles are necessary for the study of growth and development. 

 These are conspicuous by their absence in existing text-books of plant 

 physiology, which excel in the assemblage of interesting curiosities 

 and of uncorrelated details. The phenomena of normal growth seem to 

 call for further study and for the application of mathematical treat- 

 ment. Even a clear grasp of the general conception of the compound 

 interest law of development, at once greatly simplifies the handling of 

 problems of physiological predetermination and of growth." 



The main part of their discussion deals with the published results of 

 other workers, and upwards of 200 titles are found in their bibliography. 

 Their own experimental work is only what seemed necessary to fill 

 the most serious gaps. The aims of the writers are clearly stated in 

 their opening sentences. "In a survey of the literature of the last 

 fifty years dealing with the seed it is interesting to note that atten- 

 tion has been almost entirely concentrated upon the question of germi- 

 nation. The effect upon germination of every manner of treatment 

 and of every sort of condition has been investigated in the case of the 

 seeds of a great range of cultivated and wild plants." 



"In only a very few cases has attention been directed upon the 

 question suggested by the title of this paper, namely, as to how far 

 the physiological condition of the plant in the seed-stage (i.e., in mat- 



^vidd, F. and West, C. Physiological predetermination: the influence of the 

 physiological condition of the seed upon the course of subsequent growth and 

 upon the yield. Annals of Appl. Biol., 5: 1-10; 112-142; 157-170; 220-251. 

 1918-1919. 6:1-26. 1919. 



