24 The Plant World. 



hook on jlant chemistry. * If such student feels that his knowl- 

 edge of chemistry is inadequate to the modem phases of physi- 

 ology, this work offers a convenient and not too exhaustive 

 introduction to many of the newer problems. 



The first of its three parts comprises Vol. I, and is made up 

 of an exceedingly well arranged and very clear series of chemical 

 descriptions of most of the compounds found in plants, from the 

 simpler alcohols to the polypeptides and proteins. The second 

 part, which with Part III, makes Vol. II (as a single volume the 

 book would be scarcely an inch thick), deals with the "general 

 principles of plant life." Here are found discussions of such 

 fundamental principles as osmotic pressure, diffusion, the mass 

 law, solubility, colloids, catalytes and enz\me action, fermenta- 

 tion, the chemical conditions of growth, etc., a knowledge of 

 which will soon be regarded as essential to the serious study of 

 plant physiology, if not, indeed, to that of botany as a w^hole. 

 The third part treats of the chemical processes in the plant body, 

 such as photosynthesis, the assimilation of nitrogen and of 

 salts, respiration, fertilization in its physico-chemical aspects, 

 respiration, fertilization in its physico-chemical aspects, and 

 the like. 



The brevity and cleamesss of the treatment and the char- 

 actenstic emphasizing of principles rather than facts should 

 make the work much more useful to the student in many ways 

 than has been Czapek's Biochemie der Pflanzen, now six years 

 old. But the completeness of the latter, its very character 

 which makes it difficult of use by the student, will insure the 

 maintenance of its present unique position as a sort of encyclo- 

 pedia of the chemistry of plants. Euler's literature references 

 are sufficiently full to place the reader in contact with the original 

 sources. It is to be hoped that an English translation may ap- 

 pear at no distant time. — Burton E. Livingston. 



A New Physiological Text. — The late Professor Barnes, 

 several years ago, reviewed my book on plant physiology with a 

 degree of mercy which I had hardly dared expect, and for which 

 I was correspondingly grateful. I wish that he might now know 

 my appreciation of his success in giving a summary presentation 



*Euler, H, Grundlagen und Ergebnisse der Pflanzenchemie. Vol. I, pp. 239, Vol. II, pp 

 298; Braunschweig, F. Vieweg & Sohn, 1908-09. [Mk. 13.00]. 



