The paper by H.Othmer, entitled Current problems in pattern formation, is 

 almost entirely mathematical in content. It discusses patterns based on 

 coupled "units" (cells) which are periodic or capable of being entrained by 

 a periodic signal. It attempts to answer two questions: (1) under what con- 

 ditions do the coupled units synchronise into a single collective mode, and 

 (2) what properties of the internal (biochemical) dynamics and of the coup- 

 ling produce non-uniform spatio-temporal patterns? 



PLANT DEVELOPMENT (general) (see also 7, 76, 79) 



Textbooks 



12. 



K.V.THIMANN. 1977. HORMONE ACTION IN THE WHOLE LIFE OF PLANTS 



Univ. of Massachusetts Press, Amherst. XII, 448 pp., 245 figs., 40 tabs., 



author and subject indexes. $ 3 5.00 



Contents: 1. Historical and general introduction, 2. Hormones and the ger- 

 mination of seeds, 3. Cell enlargement and growth, 4. Polarity and the 

 transport of auxin, 5. Geotropism, 6. Phototropism, 7. The development of 

 leaves and roots, 8. Chemical aspects of the hormones, 9. Differentiation 

 and plant tissue cultures, 10. Apical dominance, 11. The role of hormones 

 in flowering and fruiting, 12. Hormones and the senescence of leaves, 13. 

 The abscission of leaves and fruits, 14. Concepts of the mechanism of ac- 

 tion of the hormones 



It is a rare occurrence that a man who has been active in a field almost 

 from its first inception is able to write a survey of it in ripe old age. 

 This is what Professor Thimann has accomplished. The book is based on a 

 series of lectures given for graduate students in 1974. It has been critical- 

 ly reviewed elsewhere by botanists; this reader, a zoologist, particularly 

 enjoyed the lively style of the narrative, conveying an impression of listen- 

 ing to a highly gifted lecturer, and the frequent accounts of the historical 

 origins of the subject. 



As will be apparent from the table of contents little will be found on the 

 more strictly morphogenetic aspects of plant development. No attempt has been 

 made at compiling a comprehensive bibliography, because this is available 

 elsewhere, but the protagonists of the story are given due credit and geo- 

 graphically located throughout the text. The chapter bibiographies are short 

 and there is a brief list of supplementary reading at the end. 



The book is beautifully produced and illustrated. 



Monographs 

 13. 



R.BEIDERBECK. 1977. PFLANZENTUMOREN , ein Problem der pflanzlichen Entwicklung 

 Ulmer, Stuttgart. 215 pp., 39 figs., 14 tabs., combined subject and taxonomic 

 index. DM 48.00 



This book is a critical, up-to-date and extremely well-organised survey of 

 the enormous amount of recent and older work on higher-plant tumours. It 

 opens with a concise but excellent summary of the cellular principles of 

 normal plant development (17 pp.) and a chapter on wound healing (8 pp.). In 

 the last chapter tumour formation is again contrasted with normal histogene- 

 sis, and a general frame of reference is given for cancer as a cellular phe- 

 nomenon against the background of the genetic model of Ahuja and Anders 

 (1976) . 



The main chapters of the book deal with crowngall tumours (95 pp.), virus- 

 induced tumours and WTV (16 pp.), genetic tumours in Niootiana (19 pp.), 



194 



