July 14, 1923] 



NATURE 



51 



derived from Prof. E. 0. von Lippmann's " Entstehung 

 und Ausbreitung der Alchemie." In view of the fact 

 that copies of Geber's works are scarce, the present 

 edition will be welcome to all chemists, for Geber had 

 a pleasant style and his writings are full of interest and 

 still worth reading. It is satisfactory, too, to see that 

 the book is to be sold in England at what appears to 

 be a very modest price. 



It is perhaps fatting, in concluding this review, 

 to ask the pertinent (but, it is to be hoped, not im- 

 pertinent) question : "If Geber was not Jabir ibn 

 Hayyan, who was he ? " 



E. J. HOLMYARD. 



The Living Plant. 



Botany of the Living Plant. By Prof. F. 0. Bower. 

 Second edition. Pp. xii+634. (London: Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 1923.) 255. net. 



TPIE publication of a second edition of Prof. F. 0. 

 Bower's excellent " Botany of the Living 

 Plant " less than four years after the appearance of the 

 original work shows that the volume has received the 

 recognition it so justly deserved. This new edition 

 has undergone a good deal of alteration, much of 

 which has been made by the author as a result of 

 criticisms and friendly suggestions. 



The changes have certainly improved the book to a 

 very considerable extent, the most important being the 

 treatment of the Cryptogams and Gymnosperms, which 

 occupy the second half of the work. Instead of these 

 plants being arranged with the Coniferae at the begin- 

 ning and the fungi, bacteria, and algae at the end. Prof. 

 Bower now begins the second half with a very useful 

 I chapter on evolution, homoplasy, homology, and 

 analogy. This new chapter serves to introduce the 

 progressive series of plant forms the life histories of 

 which are traced in evolutionary series from the 

 simplest Thallophyta to the complex Gymnosperms 

 in the chapters which follow. 



The series of chapters, culminating in the ferns and 

 conifers, is followed now quite logically by the chapters 

 on " Alternation of Generations and the Land Habit " 

 and on " Sex and Heredity," which, though they have 

 very properly been transposed, come at the end of 

 the book as formerly. 



The appendix (A) on types of floral construction in 

 Angiosperms then follows, and forms a useful intro- 

 duction to the systematic study of plants; and appendix 

 (B) on vegetable food-stuffs is followed by a carefully 

 compiled index and glossary; these complete the 

 volume as in the first edition. 



Several minor alterations have been noticed in com- 

 paring the two editions , and they are all distinct impro ve- 

 NO. 2802, VOL. 112] 



ments : in particular the new chapter on " The Living 

 Cell " deserves special notice. This chapter is a very 

 useful addition, since, in the first edition, the general 

 physiological conditions of the plant cell were not 

 treated so fully as is necessary for a proper under- 

 standing of that continuous living system of which 

 the plant body consists. 



In this new edition, after describing fully the cellular 

 construction of plants, the structure of the several 

 living units which compose the plant body follows 

 naturally, and allows the succeeding chapters on the 

 tissues of stem, leaf, and root, and on general physiology, 

 to be fully appreciated. 



Specialists in one branch of botany or another may 

 perhaps feel that sufficient space has not been given to 

 one or other aspect of botanical science, which now 

 covers so wide a field ; but, as Prof. Bower very justly 

 says in his preface to the first edition, " No attempt 

 has been made after encyclopedic writing," and we 

 feel that it is well for the student who is to be intro- 

 duced to the plant as a living organism that the author 

 has confined himself so admirably to the object on 

 which he embarked, and has succeeded in producing a 

 book which is certainly the standard British work on 

 general botany. 



Our Bookshelf. 



War : Its Nature, Cause ^ and Cure. By G. Lowes 

 Dickinson. Pp. 155. (London: G. Allen and 

 Unwin, Ltd., 1923.) 45. 6d. net. 



With his usual convincing sincerity, Mr. Dickinson 

 sets out the unanswerable case against war. He 

 appeals especially to younger men to realise what 

 the nations have done, what they are doing now, 

 and what it must all lead to unless the issue is honestly 

 faced, and every one makes up his own mind clearly 

 as to whether he wants war or not. For readers of 

 Nature as such, the book would therefore have no 

 immediate interest were it not that the author brings 

 into some emphasis the relations of science and men 

 of science to warfare. 



If mankind does not end war, war will end mankind. 

 If this has not been true in the past, it is true now 

 because modern war is linked with modern science, 

 which, if the chief hope for the world, is also its chief 

 menace. Men of science have in consequence more 

 than average weight in deciding whether war is to 

 continue or not ; and some at any rate of them will 

 not fail to be moved by Mr. Dickinson's appeal to 

 bring all the prestige and intelligence of natural 

 knowledge on to the side of those who mean to end 

 war. He suggests that chemists and physicists and 

 others who might be concerned should collectively 

 and internationally announce that they did not propose 

 to communicate to governments anything which would 

 be useful in war — an impossible proposition, as the 

 author would know if he had more acquaintance 

 with the history and mode of progress of scientific 



