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NA TURK 



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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1894. 



TWO TEXT-BOOKS OF BOTANY. 

 A Students' Text-book 0/ Botany. By Prof. S. H. Vines, 

 M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. (First half.) With 279 Illus- 

 trations. (London : Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 

 1894.) 

 The Students' Introductory Handbook of Systematic 

 Botany. By Joseph W. Oliver. (London : Blackie 

 and Son, 1S94.) 

 \ 1 TE are very glad indeed to welcome Prof. Vines' new 

 * * book. It is the first English text-book of modern 

 botany that has yet appeared. The book has grown 

 out of the author's translation of Prantl's " Lehrbuchder 

 Botanik," but, as Prof. \'ines tells us in the preface, 

 " though the form of Prof. Prantl's book is retained, and 

 here and there paragraphs from the English edition 

 have been inserted, it is essentially a new book, for 

 which he alone is responsible." 



The difficulties in the way of writing a good compre- 

 hensive text-book of botany are very great. Owing to 

 the huge amount of material, much of it mere detail, which 

 accumulates day by day, the work of selection becomes 

 increasingly laborious to any writer who is anxious to 

 produce a text-book which shall be of real value to the 

 advanced student. Perhaps no botanist was so well 

 fitted to undertake this work as Prof. \'ines, and he has 

 done the work carefully and well. Modern researches 

 have been incorporated wherever possible, and the 

 author has placed his facts before the reader in a very 

 clear, but somewhat encyclopsdic manner. We must 

 protest against the terminology. The author has intro- 

 duced a large number of new terms, many of which 

 seem to be quite superfluous, and likely to render the 

 study of botany unnecessarily confusing to the student. 

 Added to this, the book is, unfortunately, not got up in a 

 very attractive style ; the illustrations are poor, and the 

 majority of them will be familiar to the student of botany. 

 They have appeared over and over again in all sorts of 

 text-books, good and bad, and it is much to be regretted 

 that an adherence to these old figures should have become 

 traditional. 



The volume before us is only the first half of the book. 

 It is divided into three parts, which deal respectively 

 with morphology, the intimate structure of plants 

 ■(anatomy and histology), and the classification of plants ; 

 the latter includes the Thallophyta, Bryophyta, and 

 Pteridophyta, the description of the Phanerogams being 

 reserved for the second half of the book. 



Part i. is divided into two chapters and an intro- 

 duction. In the latter some fundamental points are con- 

 sidered, the meaning of the terms morphology and 

 homology explained, and a general description given 

 of polymorphism, or alternation of generations, as 

 exemplified in the moss, which is taken as occupying a 

 central position, of morphological equality in the two 

 generations, in the vegetable kingdom. 



The development of the body and its members is 

 treated excellently. Holoblastic and nieroblastic de- 

 velopment are explained. The difference between homo- 

 blasUc and heteroblastic embryology is discussed. The 



NO. 1304, VOL. 50] 



latter kind of development is seen most strongly 

 marked in the Characeae, Mosses, Lemanea, and 

 Batrachospermum, where two distinct stages in the 

 development of the gametophyte can be observed. 



In chapter ii. the special morphology of the members, 

 thallus, stem, leaf, root, &c., is treated in detail. The 

 description given of the leaf is excellent. The form 

 of the leaf and its various parts are first of all de- 

 scribed, then the development of the leaf, its branching, 

 heterophylly, bud scales, &c. The leaf is regarded, from 

 Bower's point of view, as a branch system. In most 

 plants the leaf undergoes differentiation or segmentation 

 along its longitudinal axis or phyllopodium. The result 

 is that we get in the most complete cases the phyllo- 

 podium differentiated into leaf base or hypopodium,meso- 

 podium or petiole, and an apical part or epipodium. 

 The epipodium is typically winged and forms the lamina, 

 the mesopodium is rarely winged, the hypopodium more 

 frequently so, forming the stipules or leaf-sheath. The 

 branching of the leaf is commonly confined to the 

 epipodium, and is like that of a stem or root, either 

 dichotomous or lateral, but dichotomous branching is 

 rare. The ribs of the lamina represent distinct axes of 

 growth. In some cases the growth of these axes and 

 their respective wings results in the production of leaves 

 with an entire margin ; in other cases the growth is more 

 irregular, and lobed, or segmented leaves are produced. 



The morphology of the reproductive organs is next 

 considered, the vegetative, asexual, and sexual modes 

 of reproduction being described in some detail. Bracts 

 and perianth leaves are included under the common 

 term hypsophylls. In connection with spore formation 

 we think Prof. Vines has introduced an unnecessary 

 distinction between spores which are produced on the 

 gametophyte and spores which are produced on the 

 sporophyte, especially as, in the cases where this is said 

 to occur, the distinction between gametophyte and 

 sporophyte is, to say the least, not well marked. When 

 the spores are produced on a gametophyte they are 

 called gonidia, the sporangia are called gonidangia, and 

 he sporophores are called gonidiophores. 



Part ii. deals with the intimate structure of plants, and 

 is divided into two chapters, on the cell and the tissues 

 respectively. The relation of multinucleated cells to 

 uninucleate is explained. The multinucleate segment is 

 regarded as a collection of protoplasmic units, cnergids 

 (a term due to Sachs), and is termed a crenocyte. But, 

 as the author points out, true multinucleate cells are 

 produced in some plants by fragmentation of the original 

 nucleus, as in the internodal cells of Chara. 



In connection with the minute structure of the cell, 

 and the division of the nucleus, we find that many of the 

 more important recent researches are included. 



The important observations of Guignard on centro- 

 spheres are shortly described, and one or two of his 

 figures are given in illustration. Here again the author's 

 statement that " closely associated with the nucleus is a 

 body called the centrosphere," appears to us to be too 

 general, as centrospheres have not yet been discovered 

 in all the groups of plants, although the observations 

 which have been already mtde, lead one to the conclusion 

 that they will ultimately be discovered in connection 

 with all nuclei. 



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