104 BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



Botany of Crop Plants. — The author and the publishers are to be 

 congratulated on the contents and the general appearance of this 

 useful publication. It concentrates in convenient and simple form 

 many facts that make it useful either as a text or reference book. In 

 general make up it resembles another recent publication of this firm, 

 Harshberger's Mycology and Plant Pathology. 



As indicated by the title the book treats chiefly of plants grown by 

 man for his own use, and as food for his stock. Were it not for such 

 prominent exceptions as cotton, flax, hemp, hops and tobacco, it might 

 be called the Botany of Food Plants. Drug and ornamental plants 

 are not included though more or less grown as crops in some districts. 

 The plants dealt with are those grown in the United States, and evi- 

 dently more attention was given to those congenial to temperate regions 

 than to those tropical or semi-tropical in nature. The date is entirely 

 neglected. Some four hundred botanical species and varieties are 

 treated more or less in detail, not counting many horticultural varieties. 



The first part of the book, eight chapters, is devoted to a brief de- 

 scription of the morphology and histology of plant structures. This is 

 given to make more intelligent the systematic and economic discussions 

 in the remaining thirty-two chapters. These are taken up with a 

 consideration of the most important economic families, genera, and 

 species, beginning with Gramineae and ending with Compositse, in 

 orthodox botanical style but in a popular manner. Of course the 

 Graminese receive the most attention and Robbins, true to American 

 tradition, evidently considers corn King, for it receives the greatest 

 space, some thirty-four pages, though wheat and potatoes are rival 

 candidates for this honor. Mains and its relatives receive much more 

 attention than Citrus, which would tend to make the work more popular 

 in the state of Washington and the north than in California and the 

 south. 



Each family, genus and species receives popular botanical treat- 

 ment from a morphological and systematic point of view, followed by 

 infonnation as to varieties, harvesting, manufacturing, uses, distribu- 

 tion, origin, etc. The illustrations are well chosen and varied. Scien- 

 tific and common names are used in proper proportions. The whole 

 concludes with an extended glossary and a complete index. — G. P. 

 Clinton. 



1 Robbins, Wilfred W., The Botany of Crop Plants. Philadelphia, P. Blak- 

 iston's Son and Company, 1917 ($2.00) . 



