JUNE I1, 1914] 
NATURE 
B/S: 
view that the beginner in botany should first learn | 
about economic plants and classify them scientific- 
ally and later deal with other aspects of the 
subject. In accordance with this view it begins 
with a preliminary chapter on the way in which 
botany arose, how plants are named, and the 
nature of varieties, species, and genera. In the 
next chapter, thirty-four pages are devoted to the 
cereals; the characteristics, floral and otherwise, 
of the various forms are described, maps of their 
probable origin and present distribution are given, 
and their suitability to various habitats pointed 
out. At the end of this chapter, the nutritive 
value of the grain of various cereals is considered, 
and the nature of carbohydrates, proteids, and fats 
briefly indicated. In the third chapter, other food 
plants are considered, such as nuts, pulse, earth- 
vegetables, herbage-vegetables, fruit-vegetables, 
and miscellaneous food-products. After this re- 
view of the chief food-plants a discussion of food 
as a fuel and building material is provided, and 
the energy available in fats, carbohydrates, and 
proteids is considered, leading finally to the ques- 
tion of the composition of a suitable ration. Then 
we have chapters on flavouring and beverage 
plants, on medicinal and poisonous plants, and on 
industrial plants, i.e. plants yielding fibres, wood, 
gums, fuel, etc. Then follow chapters on classi- 
fication, and on the parts of a flowering plant, and 
a chapter on evolution, adaptation, and natural 
selection. At the end of the book the chief groups 
of alge, fungi, liverworts, mosses, and _ pterido- 
phyta are all surveyed in no more than eighty 
pages. Finally we have a chapter on the plant’s 
place in nature, which includes a_semi-philo- 
sophical discussion of the distinction between the 
living and the non-living. 
This brief statement of the contents of the book 
will show that the author has great faith in the 
powers of mental digestion of beginners, and does 
not hesitate to provide them with plenty of “fine, 
confused feeding.” The earlier chapters of the 
books might perhaps be usefully read by an 
advanced student interested in the economic side 
of the subject and in classification, but they are 
almost too full of information to be used other 
than for reference. As an introduction to botany, 
however, the book is an anachronism. It might 
have been so used when classification practically 
embraced the whole subject, but nowadays it is 
generally agreed that the student should gain as 
early as possible a clear conception of the plant 
as a working whole. But in this book the student 
may peruse 500 pages without gaining any clear 
idea of the function of the parts of the plant. 
There is no description of the internal structure 
of a stem, root, or leaf of a flowering plant, or 
NO. 2328, VOL. 93] 
| the reviewer has ever met. 
any mention of a chloroplast, or any description 
of a cell of a higher plant. Useful as the earlier 
chapters may be to other readers, the book appears 
to be quite unsuitable for a beginner, who should 
not be plagued too severely with information, but 
by proper selection of material should be led to 
acquire sound general views of his subject. The 
author states that he has “tried to write such a 
book as I believe would have been most useful to 
me as a beginner.” If the author has really suc- 
ceeded in recapturing his impressions as a tyro 
in the subject, his needs must have been very 
different from that of any elementary student that 
V2 HB: 
GERMAN POPULAR SCIENCE. 
(1) Biicher der Naturwissenschaft. Edited by 
Prof. Siegmund Giinther. 21 vols. (Leipzig: 
Philipp Reclam, jun., n.d.) Price 1 mark each. 
(2) Aus Natur und Geisteswelt: Sammlung 
wissenschaftlich-gemeinverstdndlicher Darstell- 
ungen. 442 vols. (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 
n.d.) Price 1.25 marks each. 
(3) Naturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek fiir Jugend 
und Volk. Edited by Konrad Héller and Georg 
Ulmer. 23 vols. (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 
n.d.) Price 1.80 marks each. 
(4) Series of Science Books for Austrian Secondary 
Schools. Published by F. Tempsky, Vienna, 
and G. Freytag, G.m:b.H., Leipzig. Price 2 
to 5 kronen each. 
(x) HE idea underlying Dr. Giinther’s series 
is to select a limited area of some scien- 
tific subject, and to treat it in a modern and 
popular manner which combines attractiveness 
with accuracy. Some of the latest volumes of this 
series are Lampert’s ““Vom Keim zum Leben,” a 
very readable account of plant and animal develop- 
ment; Prof. Wieleitner’s “Schnee und Eis der 
Erde,” nicely illustrated with photographs of 
‘‘penitenis” and other remarkable ice formations ; 
Dr. Hempelmann’s ‘‘Der Wirbeltier-Kérper,” a 
useful though rapid summary of comparative 
vertebrate anatomy; Prof. Pahde’s “ Meeres- 
kunde,” in which the latest results, such as those 
of the hydrodynamical theory of ocean currents, 
are clearly brought to bear; Dr. Speter’s 
“Chemische Verwandtschaft,” and Heinrich 
Leiser’s “ Welt der Kolloide,” the latter a fascina- 
ting presentation of the rapidly growing science 
of colloids; and an excellent little manual on heat 
by the late Robert Geigel. 
(2) Teubner’s “Natur und Geisteswelt” series 
is an exceptionally large undertaking of the same 
kind. Among typical recent volumes may be 
cited a very valuable booklet by Max Verworn 
