REVIEWS i6i 



Botany with Agricultural Applications. By J. N. Martin, Ph.D. Second 

 Edition. [Pp. xii + 604, with 490 figures.] (London : Chapman & 

 Hall, 1920. Price 21s. net.) 



The scope of this text-book is approximately that of the elementary college 

 course, with stress laid on those aspects which more particularly concern the 

 economic applications of Botany. The author begins by treating of the 

 flowering plant, and the student is led from a consideration of the reproductive 

 organs to a study of the morphology and physiology of seedlings. Chapters 

 then follow dealing with cells and tissues, roots, stems, buds, in which pruning 

 and grafting are described, and leaves. In all of these the appropriate physio- 

 logical aspects are treated, though often very briefly. 



The second part is concerned with the various plant groups. Variation, 

 Heredity, and Evolution. There is also a short chapter on the ecological 

 classification of plants and a concise account of plant- breeding methods. 

 Throughout, economic plants are largely used for purposes of illustration. 



A particular feature we would emphasise is that, though written for a 

 special class of student, the broader view-point is not lost sight of. Although 

 this cannot be too clearly evident, we venture to think that space might have 

 been found for a more adequate account of the soil in relation to plants and 

 for a fuller description of the bacteria. 



A large number of types are dealt with in the section on the various groups, 

 and here one rather doubts the educational value of including such specialised 

 forms as Pediastrum and Hydrodictyon, or the details of sexual reproduction in 

 the red algae, charales, etc. 



The illustrations are well chosen, and the whole should prove a useful text 

 to students of agriculture and others for whom the further matter on heredity 

 and evolution in the present edition is a welcome addition, E. J. S. 



Studies in FossU Botany. By D. H. Scott, LM.A., L.D., D.Sc. Ph.D., F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., F.R.M.S. Third Edition, Vol. I, Pteridophyta. 

 [Pp. xxiii + 434, with 190 illustrations.] (London : A. and C. Black, 

 1920. Price 25s. net.) 



The title of this book should be more properly " Studies in Palcsozoic Fossil 

 Botany," for, although mention is made of them here and there, few Mesozoic 

 or Tertiary plants find their places in its pages. It is true that this classic 

 work makes no claim to be a general text-book of Palaeobotany, and, as was 

 said in the Preface to the First Edition, it intends " to present to the botanical 

 reader those results of palasontological inquiry which appear to be of funda- 

 mental importance from the botanist's point of view." 



This was written when the first edition was published over twenty years 

 ago, and in these twenty years this book has, without any question, held the 

 leading place and influenced what little palaeobotanical teaching there has 

 been in our country. It has, therefore, during that time, set its mark upon and 

 moulded the type of thought of British botanists and palaeobotanists : al- 

 though it has moulded them on a model of meticulous accuracy and lucid 

 detailed exposition of the chief of those Palaeozoic plants known to us from 

 their anatomical structure, it has tended, at the same time, to narrow and to 

 some extent warp our outlook on the whole subject of Palaeobotany. 



On glancing through the Index and the Contents Table one perceives at 

 once examples to illustrate the above comment. For instance, sixty pages are 

 devoted to the group of the Equisetales, and, although that family flourished 

 in the Mesozoic times, and exists, of course, down to the present, less than two 

 pages are devoted to any mention of plants other than Palaeozoic specimens. 



Even Palaeozoic plants, if they chance not to be preserved so as to show 

 their anatomical structure, tend to be relegated to a secondary place of interest. 

 For instance, on page no appears a short description of that ancient and 



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