CURRENT LITERATURE 



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BOOK REVIEWS 



Physiology and ecology 



We take up Dr. Clements' new book' with favorable anticipations, ready to 

 welcome a text of moderate size with the broad scope indicated by the title 

 Plant physiology and ecology. The author tells us that the book is based upon 

 his earlier Research methods in ecology ^ the manner of treatment being the same; 

 i. e., first to consider the plant as an individual, establishing certain relations 

 between the physical factors and its functions and form (physiology), and then 

 to consider it as a member of a larger or smaller group of plants (ecology). "The 

 proper task of physiology," says the author, "is the study of the external factors 

 of the environment or habitat in which the plant lives, and of the activities and 

 structures which these factors call forth The sequence of study is con- 

 sequently factor^ function, form." So after selecting and describing some promi- 

 nent factor — water, light; temperature^ etc. — he proceeds to discuss its influence 

 upon the various functions and organs. 



Undoubtedly that method of treatment possesses marked advantages; but 

 it may be seriously questioned whether our present knowledge is broad enough 

 and exact enough to permit its successful use. And if it were, to write physiology 

 in such a manner is peculiarly difficult. It requires thorough familiarity with 

 the literature, especially that dealing with experimental morphology and irrita- 

 bility, clear conceptions of physical chemistry, and above all an instinctive avoid- 

 ance of vague and inexact physiological cant. Certainly Dr. CLEiiENTs' adoption 

 of this method makes the physiological part of the book strikingly unconventional; 

 the ecological part is less abnormal because ecolog)^ has proceeded from the first 

 largely along such lines. And of the ecological part we have little to say, since 

 it is essentially like that of the earlier book (reviewed in this journal, 40:381. 



Pedagogically the book leaves much to be desired. In the earlier sections 

 the author wavers between textbook and manual; for beside the "experiments" 

 in distinctive type (some of which are not experiments at all), the body of the 

 text is partly subject-matter and partly directions to the instructor as to the 

 management of his class, or to the student' as to the materials and methods of 

 his work. 



In the very first chapter, on stimulus and response, the student is plunged 



I Clements, F. E., Plant physiolog>^ and ecology. 8vo. pp. xv-fjij. figs. I2j, 



New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1907 



307 



