THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 37 



they sometimes miss it, in which case the pubhc is denied a 

 book which otherwise it would receive with profit. 



We have seldom found more interesting reading for the 

 botanist than that which comes to us in a thin little book of 

 only fifty-nine pages by Prof. F. O. Bower of the University 

 of Glasgow. It is one of the "Pioneers of Science" series 

 and recounts briefly the life of Joseph Dalton Hooker, pos- 

 sible the foremost of British botanists and the one above all 

 others who made the great Kew Gardens famous. The name 

 of the author is a guarantee that the book is both intelligible 

 and interesting to the layman. An excellent portrait of 

 Hooker forms the frontispiece of the volume. Other names 

 in this same series are Galileo, Faraday, Herschel, and Wal- 

 lace. A number of others would be welcome. The book is 

 published in London at 2 shillings but is for sale on this side 

 by the Macmillan Company of New York. 



Although botany has for some time past evinced a trend 

 toward the economic, practical, books dealing with this 

 phase of the subject are still somewhat rare. Sargent's 

 "Plants and Their Uses and Rodgers' "Useful Plants Every 

 Child Should Know" are about the only books on the list. 

 Next spring Robert H. McBride & Company will bring out a 

 book by C. F. Saunders on "Useful Wild Plants" and there 

 are various indications that other books of this nature are in 

 the making. In addition to these, there is available a very 

 excellent book which approaches the subject from the chem- 

 ical side. This is E. H. S. Bailey's "Source, Chemistry, and 

 Use of Food Products." That the book is appreciated is 

 shown by the fact that it has been reprinted four times since 

 its appearance in 1914. The book is especially full as regards 

 the composition of the various foods, and the processes they 

 go through in being fitted for the market. The history of 

 each food plant is given with notes on cultivation, harvesting, 

 storing, etc. In addition to the plant foods, there are chap- 

 ters on meats, fish, milk, eggs, and animal fats as well as on 



