74 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



our dilemma, for the majority of our readers are people of 

 mature minds who long ago passed the plant naming stage 

 and are now interested in the philosophical side of botany. 

 How to keep the beginner interested until he too finds attrac- 

 tive the study of plants as living things, is the question. If 

 this catches the eye of any reader who finds part of the maga- 

 zine unintelligible, we suggest that he continue to read and 

 study in the assurance that an occasional review of back num- 

 bers will always reveal new facts to him. He may in time 

 approach the state of mind of an enthusiastic old subscriber 

 who recently wrote of his bound set: "I would rather have 

 this set of books than any books on botany ever published. I 

 like to get them out often when I want something interesting 

 to read and all are equally interseting. I doubt if there is 

 anything in this line that would be more popular in a library. 

 Have suggested them to every librarian asking me what books 

 to get." We have only 30 sets left. 



BOOKS AND WRITERS 



There is evolution in textbooks as in everything else. 

 Twenty years ago, a first course in botany almost invariably 

 consisted in sufficient instruction in naming plant parts to 

 enable students to use a key and "analyze" plants in the ex- 

 pectation that the rest of the course would consist in collecting 

 specimens, mummifying them and arranging them in an her- 

 barium. Then came the era of physiological botany in which 

 numerous experiments were performed with plants to prove 

 that they are alive and functioning as other living things are. 

 On the heels of this, young students were set to studying 

 algae, mosses, ferns and the like, in an effort to discover the 

 lines along which evolution has proceeded. When ecology, 

 agriculture and forestry began to command attention a still 



