94 BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



authorities, and the diagrammers, and present a scholarly and therefore 

 conservative statement of the main facts of botanical science today. 

 The six hundred and forty pages of Gager's book, which would occupy 

 no more space than Ganong's if trimmed to the same size, are bound in 

 flexible covers, are equalty illustrated but from sources not so immedi- 

 ately recognized, and not only present the facts but reflect the fashions 

 in botanical science today. Both are designed to interest the student 

 who has no intention of becoming a botanist (unless perchance he may 

 become that best of applied botanists — a farmer), furnishing him with 

 palatable information and giving him such mental discipline as may 

 help him as an "educated" citizen to think a little more clearly and to 

 conclude a little more correctly. 



In Gager's book one meets a distinct novelty in the small portraits of 

 the most eminent contributors to the science of botany. To the ad- 

 vanced student, the faces of Ingen-Housz, Priestly, and others, have a 

 very human interest, and to many other students this human interest 

 may also appeal. The faces are of men whom one would gladly have 

 known; they make the famous names more real. But does the casual 

 student care enough to justify the cost of space? Probably not, but 

 also it is not the casual student of whom much can be made by any 

 means whatsoever; and the reviewer is not sure that the botanical facts 

 which might have filled the space of these figures would make any more 

 desirable impression. 



In Ganong's book one finds the usual botany expounded most unusu- 

 ally well. In Gager's the newer and more immediate relations of plant 

 life and plant study to human life find more direct and thorough treat- 

 ment. Botany as an intellectual pursuit, as a source of interest and 

 satisfaction, has long been recognized: but botany as a vital, practical 

 interest is comparatively new. The intimate relation of the study of 

 plants to the economic condition of mankind is not generally acknowl- 

 edged, if generally recognized at all. When the world of men realizes — 

 not merely vaguely knows — that all its food is produced by plants, 

 that most of its conveniences and comforts come from plants, and that 

 its health is dependent upon plants, it will turn to a much more intense 

 and much broader study of plants, their workings, and their conditions 

 of work, than is now the case. Books which emphasize these relations 

 to readers whom they have interested have a new and valuable reason 

 for existence. These two are such books and are correspondingly com- 

 mendable; they are excellent text-books, human, intelligent, and in- 

 forming. — George J. Peirce. 



