11. 



W.P.JACOBS. 1979. PLANT HORMONES AND PLANT DEVELOPMENT 



Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, etc. XII, 339 pp., 96 figs., 6 tabs., author 



index, combined subject & taxonomic index. £ 18.00 (cloth), £ 5.95 (paper) 



Contents: 1. Polarity, phototropism, and the discovery of auxin, 2. The 

 action of light in phototropism, 3. The chemical nature of endogenous 

 auxin, 4. Other developmental effects of auxin, 5. The biochemical basis 

 of auxin action, 6. Leaf and bud development and cytokinins, 7. "Flowering 

 hormones" and gibberellins, 8. Senescence, abscission, and abscisic acid, 

 9. Movement of hormones, 10. Roots and hormones, 11. Overview 



The aim of this new text for undergraduates and beginning graduates is to 

 describe the hormones of vascular plants and to discuss the ways in which 

 hormones control and coordinate development. Consequently the emphasis is 

 strongly physiological and cell differentiation and morphogenesis are not 

 treated in their own right. The historical development of ideas is described 

 at some length. The author's approach is critical, as reflected in his 

 choice of only "sound" papers as references and in his extensive treatment 

 of crucial research procedures, coupled with often very valuable advice to 

 the student. 



The book is illustrated with clear line drawings, diagrams and graphs and 

 has a bibliography of more than 800 titles and a brief list of books and 

 reviews for further reading. 



12. 



T.C.MOORE. 1979. BIOCHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANT HORMONES 

 Springer, New York, etc. XII, 274 pp., 164 figs., 13 tabs., combined taxo- 

 nomic & subject index. DM 49.00, approx. US $ 27.00 



Contents: 1. Introduction, 2. Auxins, 3 Gibberellins, 4. Cytokinins, 5. 

 Abscisic acid and related compounds, 6. Ethylene, 7. Phytochrome 



This book was written primarily for students but can also be useful to 

 other readers. From the textbook perspective it presents the subject as a 

 factual baseline, with relatively more emphasis on biochemistry than on 

 physiology and without extensive discussion of hormonal interactions and 

 other complexities; the author's experience is that this is the best format 

 for graduate courses. 



The text is fluently written and fully documented in the lengthy chapter 

 bibliographies, which moreover contain material for additional reading (it 

 would have been better if these two classes had been listed separately) . 

 The book is produced with great care and illustrated with excellent line 

 drawings, diagrams and photographs. 



13. 



I.K.ROSS. 1979. BIOLOGY OF THE FUNGI: their development, regulation, and 



associations 



McGraw-Hill, New York, etc. McGraw-Hill Series in Organismic Biology. 



XII, 499 pp., 243 figs., 4 tabs., combined subject and taxonomic index. 



£ 14.95, DM 51.90 



Fungi are important to developmental biology because of their curious, 

 mainly non-cellular or semi-cellular nature, and because developmental reg- 

 ulation can be studied in spores which do not require the introduction of 

 another genome through fertilisation. This stimulating text for undergradu- 

 ates would seem ideally suited to bring developmental biologists of other 

 specialisations up to date, the more so as it includes the slime moulds 

 though these are nowadays no longer placed with the fungi. 



172 



