Books and Current Literature. 25 



of the subject of plant physiology, * but in such a way that the 

 reader not merely feels informed, and is content to wait to be 

 told more, but wishes himself to attempt to solv'e some of the 

 many problems which Barnes suggests. In the many years dur- 

 ing which Barnes had been reading physiology with that rare 

 critical sense which made his work on the Botanical Gazette such 

 a valuable contribution to our science, he was accumulating the 

 data and acquiring the sense of proportion which such a book de- 

 mands. This book shows that his interests were broad, that he 

 had no special hobby which he considered the most important 

 part of physiology to be emphasized accordingly while some other 

 topic was scrimped. The treatment of the different topics be- 

 speaks a mind well balanced as well as mature, able to discrim- 

 inate between fact and conjecture, honest and humble enough 

 to confess ignorance when pride might have advanced a theory. 



Starting from that common point from which one may go 

 to section and speculate in Morphology, or to browse and gener- 

 alize in Ecology, or to question and experiment in physiology, 

 Barnes first lays the foundation of his discussions in the vege- 

 table cell, its relations to water, the nature, behavior, and ac- 

 tions of aqueous solutions. As far as possible he makes use of 

 the data of physics and chemistry ; but while he does not fail to 

 recognize that in certain instances they are inadequate, he does 

 not throw them aside to indulge in vitalistic aviation. Thus 

 he treats of absorption, transfer, and transpiration of water and 

 of the phenomena accompanying and depending upon them. 



Distinguishing at once between food materials and foods, 

 he proceeds to expound (though no one can explain) photo- 

 synthesis, its products and their ultimate ends. Barnes gave us 

 the word "photosynthesis", but what a short distance physiology 

 has penetrated beneath the surface covered by this descriptive 

 term! The succinct statement of our ignorance of the process 

 of protein synthesis is followed by compact descriptions of spec- 

 ial ways of obtaining food, especially nitrogenous food, and of 

 storage, translocation, digestion, and assimilation. 



Under the heading Destructive Metabolism, Barnes treats 

 respiration, fermentation, waste products, and ash. I wish the 

 space devoted to the first of these topics had been less brief, for 



*Coulter, John M., Bames, Charles R.. and Cowles, Henry C, A Textbook of Botany for 

 Colleges and Universities. Vol. I, Morphology and Physiology. Pp. 484, New York 

 American Book Co., 1910. ($2.00). 



