Darlington, C. D. and Wylie, A. P., 1956. "Chromosome Atlas of Flowering 

 Plants," The Macmillan Co., New York, N.Y. 

 This is the most up-to-date handbook of chromosome numbers in plants, 

 arranged by family, genus, and species. It is interesting to note that while 

 some 17,000 species are listed, this amounts to only about one tenth of 

 the known species. 



Davidson, J. N., 1957. "The Biochemistry of the Nucleic Acids," 3rd ed., 

 Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 248 pp. 

 In his preface, the author refers to this little monograph as "The Child's 

 Guide to the Nucleic Acids." This is being rather over-modest. The book 

 covers the basic chemistry of the nucleic acids, general methods of detec- 

 tion and analysis, and distribution and function, in a form intelligible to 

 anyone with a knowledge of general biology and elementary organic 

 chemistry. 



DeRobertis, E. D. P., Nowinski, W. W., and Saez, F. A., 1954. "General 

 Cytology," 2nd ed., W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 456 pp. 

 As the title indicates, this book is a text in general cytology rather than a 

 monograph on a particular aspect. An effort has been made to cover saUent 

 facts and hypotheses of cell structure, chemistry, and function. About 

 100 pages are devoted to chromosome structure and behavior, with the 

 rest of the book being concerned with submicroscopic structure, cyto- 

 chemistry, and cell physiology. 



Eigsti, O. J. and Dustin, P., Jr., 1956. "Colchicine in Agriculture, Medicine, 

 Biology, and Chemistry," Iowa State College Press, Ames, Iowa, 470 pp. 



This monograph concerns one single substance, the alkaloid colchicine, 

 which is used (a) in medicine, as a specific for gout; (b) in plant breeding 

 as a polyploidizing agent, and (c) as an antimitotic in the study of mitosis 

 and as a possible mechanism of anticarcinogenic action. 



Furness, F., White, E. W., and Gross, Paul (Eds.), 1960. "Second Conference 

 on the Mechanisms of Cell Division," Annals N.Y. Acad. Sci., 90, 345- 

 613. 



This volume presents 22 technical papers on the central theme of mitosis, 

 together with an introductory article by Dr. Gross. The participants rep- 

 resent not only a very distinguished group, but also almost the entire range 

 of methodologies for attacking this very basic problem. 



Harrow, B. and Mazur, A., 1958. "Textbook of Biochemistry," 7th ed., 

 W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, Pa., 557 pp. 



This is a standard textbook of biochemistry written primarily for medical 

 students. It was selected as a reference in this particular case largely be- 

 cause it provides a relatively simple discussion of metabolic pathways 

 without presuming a particularly sophisticated chemistry background. 



ANNOTATED READING LIST / 279 



