218 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



characters of plants, the various macroscopic adaptational devices 

 which they display, must at times appeal to all botanists. For 

 those who are fortunate enough to have had a training in micro- 

 scopic manipulation there is something further — the possibility of 

 the attempt to correlate the internal anatomy of plants with their 

 life-processes and with their surroundings. The study of plant 

 anatomy as such is of purely academic interest. It is only to a 

 certain type of mind or, in any case, only to a trained anatomist, 

 that the various forms of " woody fibre " and their position in the 

 plant can appeal. The older observers in anatomy and physiology 

 certainly realized the functions of many types of plant tissue. 

 Anatomy and physiology w'ere, however, kept distinct. An epoch- 

 making paper by Schwendener — " Das mechanische Prinzip im 

 anatomischen Bau der Monocotylen " — was published in 1874, 

 in which the skeleton of the plant and the structure and relation 

 of this " mechanical" system were correlated with function in a 

 very convincing manner. Every examination student is now 

 taught the essence of Schwendener's principles but, probably 

 because no controversy was aroused, Schwendener's name is not 

 so often attached to them as it is to that suggestion of his which 

 revolutionized the study of lichens. Many of Schwendener's 

 pupils adopted the anatomico-physiological attitude, and in 1884, 

 Haberlandt (who has succeeded Schwendener as Professor of 

 Botany in Berlin) published the first edition of his famous 

 PhysiologiscJie Pflanzenanatomie. The book under review is a 

 translation of the fourth edition of this work. " In its present 

 form, therefore, this work may be assumed to embody the mature 

 and considered views of its author, with regard to that section of 

 botanical science which he has made peculiarly his own." It is 

 therefore more satisfactory to have a careful translation of this 

 work than a book which is merely a compilation. The volume 

 opens with an introduction of thirteen pages, in which the author 

 defines the aim of his book and attempts to refute certain 

 philosophical objections to parts of the study: — "The object of 

 Physiological Plant Anatomy is twofold. It consists, first, in the 

 recognition of the physiological functions pertaining to the tissues 

 of the plant and to the structural units, or cells, of which these 

 tissues are composed ; and, secondly, in the discovery of the 

 connection that exists between the several functions and the 

 anatomical arrangements required for their proper performance." 

 There is also a discussion concerning " functionless " cells which 

 " play no useful part in the general economy of the plant." This 

 seems rather too definite ; on the other hand, we should be 

 inclined to doubt whether some of the functions bestowed upon 

 certain cells have any real existence. If a function cannot be 

 assigned to a tissue at present, it seems as illogical to assume that 

 no function exists as it does to hold that the functions assigned 

 are in all other cases the correct ones. " The value of teleological 

 explanation depends entirely upon the philosophical attitude of its 

 author " we are told, and in some cases the attitude of the present 

 author is apparent. 



