PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 157 



Plant Physiology. 



Vorlesungen ilher Pjianzen-physiolotjic. By Dr. Ludwig Jost. 

 Third edition. Pp. 760 + 11 plates+ 188 figs. Jena: Gustav 

 Fischer. 1913. Price 16 marks. 



Plant Plujsioloijij. By Dr. Ludwig Jost. Supplement to the 

 English Translation by E. J. Harvey Gibson. Pp. 168 + 

 7 figs. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1913. Price 

 2s. &d. net. 



The third edition of Prof. Jost's well-known work on Plant 

 Physiology is very welcome to botanists. Immediately on its 

 first appearance in 1904 it was recognised as the best general 

 survey of the subject within the moderate compass of a single 

 volume. Of course, the work did not compete at the time with 

 the fuller treatise of Pfeffer, though it was certainly far more 

 readable. However, the last part of Pfeffer's work was pub- 

 lished in 1904, while Jost's book has been kept steadily up to 

 date and so is now indispensable as a presentation of the physio- 

 logical work of recent years. The new edition is well up to the 

 standard of the two earlier ones, for the very voluminous litera- 

 ture of the last few years has been, in the main, admirably dealt 

 with. One finds an adequate account, within the space available, 

 of most important recent investigations, such as that of Willstatter 

 on the chemistry of chlorophyll, the new work on the nature of 

 the respiratory process by Palladin and others, investigations on 

 the permeability of protoplasm, &c. The illuminating results of 

 various workers in the United States on the wilting coefficient 

 are, however, not adequately treated by the statement that two 

 workers have confirmed in the case of wheat Sachs's results with 

 tobacco. Sachs was certainly a pioneer in this work, but he touched 

 only the fringe of the subject, and his results should certainly 

 give place to those of recent workers. x\gain, in discussing the 

 question of the control of transpiration by stomatal movement, 

 fuller reference should have been made to the recent work of 

 Lloyd and Francis Darwin. Such small irregularities of treat- 

 ment are inevitable in a work of this scope ; the wonder is that 

 the general level is so high, since the labour of compilation must 

 have been very heavy. The bibliographical references, instead 

 of following each chapter as in previous additions, are now 

 distributed as footnotes in the text ; this is a great improve- 

 ment. 



The second book is a supplement to the English translation of 

 Jost's work. That it should come for review at the same time as 

 the third German edition does little credit to the Clarendon Press. 

 The English edition was a translation of the first German edition, 

 and appeared in 1907, in the same year as the second German 

 edition. There were a number of mistakes in the English edition, 

 and it was, of course, partly out of date very shortly after its 

 appearance. It has taken six years to rectify the mistakes and 

 bring the English edition up to the level of the second German 



