XIV PREFACE TO THE THIRD AMERICAN EDITION 



this third American edition may be even more helpful than were earlier ones, 

 especially to English-speaking workers in physiological research as applied 

 in agriculture and forestry. To specialists in its own field the book will, it is 

 hoped, continue to serve as a convenient means of approach to Palladin's 

 general interpretations. Finally, the numerous Russian references supply 

 English-speaking workers with a convenient introduction to the Russian 

 literature of the subject. 



The body of the text aims to be primarily a true translation of the German 

 edition, and the original forms of expression are retained in practically all 

 cases where this is at all possible in English. The general attitude of the 

 author is so obviously opposed to teleological reasoning that the non-teleological 

 point of view has been made unmistakable in those few places where the German 

 text might leave the reader uncertain in this regard. Palladin's writing is 

 more free from teleological misinterpretations of the relations between con- 

 ditions and results than is that in most of the text-books hitherto available, 

 and this fact was one of the reasons for the undertaking of an English trans- 

 lation. It will doubtless be a long time before teleology may be outgrown in 

 physiological writing and thinking, but readers with a teleological point of 

 view, who may still be satisfied with the consideration of results or effects, in 

 place of conditions or causes that may be as yet unknown, will perhaps not 

 object seriously to an emphasis upon the conviction that rapid and permanent 

 progress does not lie in this direction. Some changes from the order of pre- 

 sentation of the German edition, a few slight additions that render certain 

 statements more easily understood, and a very few alterations in terminology 

 were introduced by the editor in the earlier American editions and are now 

 retained. 



Editorial notes and additions form a considerable portion of the present 

 volume. These are generally given as footnotes but a few additions are 

 incorporated in the text, regularly enclosed in brackets so as to mark them 

 off from Palladin's writing. The editor is responsible for all that is thus 

 enclosed and for statements signed "Ed", as well as for the chapter summaries. 

 The notes and additions give material that seems desirable, either for com- 

 pleteness of presentation or for a better understanding by English-speaking 

 readers. 



In the proof-reading and in other details connected with the preparation 

 of the present edition, the editor has been assisted by Dr. Grace Lubin, of this 

 Laboratory. She has contributed a brief account of the Askenasy experiment 

 for the demonstration of cohesion in water, a classic experiment with which 

 students of plant physiology appear in general to be but vaguely familiar, 

 although the cohesion of water and the development of strain in that liquid 

 are of the most fundamental importance to an appreciation of the nature of 

 the plant and its activities. 



Palladin's treatment of the topics Growth, Movement and Reproduction (which 

 make up the subject matter of Part II) is much less complete than is his treat- 

 ment of Nutrition (Part I), and no attempt has been made by the editor to 



