1907] CURRENT LITERATURE 67 
tical phases o1 botany. The reduction of the space given to plant associations to 
thirty pages leaves this topic more nearly within the bounds in which it should 
be found in a general elementary course in botany. But the most important 
of all the new features of the book is its general plan of organization: first a general 
introduction to plant structures and functions by the use of the most accessible 
and best known plants; second upon this foundation follows a presentation of 
groups in logical order, a knowledge of structure being that around which a knowl. 
edge of use and adjustment is arranged, this being done, however, -without classi- 
fying the different phases definitely into morphology, physiology, and systematic 
botany; and thirdly, a presentation of special phases of plant life follows the 
laying of general foundations.—Ot1s W. CALDWELL. 
Water plants 
The literature pertaining to water plants promises to be greatly enriched 
through a series of studies by Griick.s The first volume (unhappily called 
Erster Teil, though a book in itself, the second “part” being likewise an independ- 
ently paged volume) deals with European Alismaceae, of which 8 species, 
representing 5 genera, were studied. This study differs from that of SCHENCK, 
SAUVAGEAL, and others, in that while they have specially treated the anatomical 
or geographical aspects, the emphasis here is chiefly on the biological side and 
by experimental methods. This shifting from the static to the dynamic is in 
harmony with the present trend of investigation. The will be of interest 
to the ecologist and morphologist, and has as well a message for the systematist. 
Part I of this first volume is descriptive of the experiments. Plants were 
Studied in various relations to water, the cultures approximating all ordina 
conditions of the uncultivated state. Typical of the author’s methods is es 
treatment of Alisma Plantago. He studied first the land forms and those growing 
in water of various depths. Records were kept of macroscopic observations, 
Measurements of parts, and peculiarities of behavior. Land-grown seedlings 
were then subjected to various aquatic conditions, even to submergence at depths 
as great as four meters. Older land plants were also subjected to similar experi- 
Ments. Both, under certain conditions, determined by size of plant and amount 
of stored food, took on the form of leaf usually characteristic of the habitat. In 
Some experiments water plants were transformed to land forms. There were 
also observations on the influence of habitat on va ean of flowers and 
fruit, and the conditions in which plants pass the 
While the results demonstrate the remarkable connie of these forms, there 
Seem, however, to be rather definite limits to their variability. For example, the 
experiments seem to have established the correctness of the old division of A. 
a, 
Ucx, Huco, Bi paige und morphologische Untersucliungen tiber Wasser~ 
und ait Erster Teil: Die ‘ slinanaeectichis der europiischen Alis- 
Maceen. 8vo, pp, xxiv+312. pis. 7. figs. 25. Jena: Gustav Fischer. 1905. M 20, 
® 
