CURRENT LITERATURE 



BOOK REVIEWS 

 Soil conditions and plant growth 



The rapid progress that is being made in the scientific field encompassed 

 by plant physiology and soil science is evidenced in the appearance of a third and 

 enlarged edition of Russell's' Soil conditions and plant growth in the series of 

 Monographs on Biochemistry edited by Plimmer and Hopkins. The first edi- 

 tion (191 2) contained 166 pages, including 13 pages of citations; the second 

 edition (191 5) contained 188 pages, including 14 pages of citations; and the third 

 edition (191 7) contains 240 pages, including 18 pages of citations. The growth 

 of the subject is marked by the addition of a chapter on "The relationship 

 between the micro-organic population of the soil and the growth of plants" to 

 the second edition, and a chapter on "The colloidal properties of soil" to the 

 third edition. In his preface to this new edition the author states that he has 

 not attempted to refer to every paper published on the subject since the first 

 edition, but that his "guiding principle has been to include only those that 

 brought in some new idea or profoundly modified an old one." The choice of 

 papers is naturally a question of judgment, yet the reviewer feels that certain 

 important omissions have been made, and he will therefore direct the reader's 

 attention to these in the hope that they may serve to supplement this admirable 

 treatment of practical plant physiologj'. Certain papers pubhshed since 191 7, 

 and therefore not referable to as "omissions," will be included in order to bring 

 the subject up to date. 



Chapter II on "The requirements of plants " presents a modern physiological 

 basis for the rest of the book. This chapter has been enlarged to the extent of 

 5 pages over the first edition. In the discussion of limiting factors the treat- 

 ment of oxygen (only 9 lines) and temperature seems quite inadequate. Atten- 

 tion is therefore directed to the following papers: 



On temperature relations of plants. — Leitch, I., Some experiments on the 

 influence of temperature on the rate of growth of Pisum sativum. Ann. Botany 

 30:25-46. 1916; Lehenbauer, p. a.. Growth of maize seedlings in relation 

 to temperature. Physiol. Researches 1:247-288. 1914; Lepeschkin, W. W., 

 Zur Erkenntnis der Einwirkung supramaximaler Temperaturen auf die Pflanze. 

 Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell. 30:703-714. 1912; Maximow (Maksimov), N. A., 

 Chemische Schutzmittel der Pflanzen gegen Erfrieren. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. 



' Russell, E. J., Soil conditions and plant growth. 3d ed. pp. 243. figs. 14. 

 New York: Longmans, Green and Co. 1917. 



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