NA TURE 



193 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1905. 



THE CHEMISTRY OF PLANTS. 

 Biochemie der Pflanzen. Zweiter Band. By Prof. 

 Dr. Fr. Czapek. Pp. xii+1026. (Jena: Gustav 

 Fischer, 1005.) Price 25 marks. 



THE first volume of this work was reviewed some 

 months back (Nature, June 22, 1905, vol. lxxii. 

 p. 169), when its general scope and nature were 

 given, and certain remarks were made with respect 

 to its style and structure which are equally applicable 

 in the case of the second volume; hence no recapitu- 

 lation of these is here necessary. 



The material of the present volume is roughly 

 double that of the first, and its magnitude is gauged 

 by the number of the pages given above. 



As the first volume dealt with the distribution, 

 metabolism, and metastasis of aliphatic substances, 

 so the second deals with proteinic compounds and 

 the biochemistry of nitrogen, with derivatives of 

 closed rings, and with the inorganic constituents of 

 plants; further, the resorption of oxygen, and 

 phenomena of irritability regarded in their biochemical 

 aspect, also receive detailed attention. 



The contents of the volume are divided into thirty- 

 eight chapters, which are followed by addenda and 

 corrections, an index of the subject-matter, another 

 of the names of plants, and finally a list of misprints 

 and errata. 



The book opens with a chapter on the general 

 chemistry of proteins. The succeeding chapters are 

 grouped, more or less, into sections under the follow- 

 ing headings : — the proteinic metabolism of the Fungi 

 and Schizomycetes, that of seeds and of other organs 

 and groups of plants, the ultimate nitrogenous and 

 anitrogenous products of metabolism, the resorption 

 of oxygen, pigments, ubiquitous cyclic and acyclic com- 

 pounds, the metabolism of inorganic substances, and 

 lastly the stimulatory action of various bodies. 



The opening chapter gives a suitably condensed 

 and, as regards the main outlines, comprehensive 

 account of the chemical and physical properties of 

 proteins and the products of their decomposition. In 

 the succeeding two sections the nature of the proteins 

 occurring in different plants and different organs is 

 discussed, and an account is given of the modes in 

 which these compounds are synthesised and rendered 

 available for metabolic processes when external to 

 the plants. The absorption of soluble nitrogenous 

 compounds is also considered in these sections, which 

 are, in fact, concerned with the general metabolism of 

 nitrogenous substances throughout the vegetal king- 

 dom. 



In the next section the ultimate nitrogenous pro- 

 ducts of metabolism are discussed in detail under 

 the following headings : — oils, purine-bases, nitril- 

 glucosides, bases derived from pyridine and chinoline, 

 and derivatives of indol. 



The section devoted to resorption of oxygen deals 

 biochemically with ordinary respiration and the 

 acquisition of chemically-bound oxygen. 



Following the sections devoted to pigments, 



NO. 1887, VOL. J 1,] 



substances of universal occurrence, and the ultimate 

 anitrogenous products of metabolism, is an exhaustive 

 treatment of the metabolism of inorganic constituents 

 in various divisions and organs of plants, and of the 

 modes of their occurrence. 



The text concludes with an interesting and well- 

 written account of the stimulatory action of various 

 substances in relation to different vital processes such 

 a-; fermentation, respiration, photosynthesis, proto- 

 plasmic streaming, nuclear division, growth, repro- 

 duction, Sec. 



An idea of the degree of comprehensivem^- and 

 detail of the work is afforded by the titles of some of 

 the minor chapters, namely, the proteinic metabolism 

 of pollen-grains, that of fruits, of mosses, of alga? ; 

 the inorganic metabolism of subterranean reserve- 

 organs, the inorganic constituents of buds, those of 

 wood, of bark, of algaa, of pollen-grains, of fruits. 



The main outline of this volume may be said to 

 have been given in the preceding paragraphs. 



What appears most striking here, as in the first 

 part, is the colossal amount of material collected; 

 the labour involved must have been enormous. A 

 result of this is the resemblance of the text of many 

 pages to some highly-condensed abstract, as it is in 

 such places practically a long- succession of facts — or 

 reputed facts. 



Like the first volume the second is singularly free 

 from misprints and errors of nomenclature. But one 

 scarcely expects to read in a precise botanical work — 

 as on p. 818 — of the " stem " and " leaf " of Lamin- 

 aria, a plant that has neither stem nor leaf. More- 

 over, in no case has Prof. Czapek attached to the 

 name of a plant that of its author; this omission is 

 certainly a common one in botanical works, but in 

 spite of this most deplorable, since in many cases in 

 which this index fails the nature of the plant is 

 doubtful. 



Many useful tables of figures occur throughout the 

 work, and orientation with respect to groups of 

 chemically-allied substances is much facilitated 

 through the interpolation of numerous graphic 

 formulas in the text. 



The literature dealing with the subjects treated 

 seems to have been searched with considerable 

 thoroughness, and that which is most essential 

 referred to in relatively suitable proportion. Possibly 

 those who have made the various branches touched 

 upon their special study might detect important 

 omissions, but so far as lay in the power of one man 

 Prof. Czapek seems to have been very successful in 

 citing all that is most important. The reviewer 

 misses reference to Schjerning's important paper on 

 proteohydrolvsis that appeared about three years back 

 in the publication of the Carlsberg laboratories, and 

 he sees no mention in this volume of the work by 

 F. F. Blackman on gaseous exchanges, or of that 

 by Cornevin on the degree of immunity of plants to 

 vegetal poisons of autochthonous and alien origin. 



Prof. Czapek is not of the opinion that the accelera- 

 tion of oxidative processes by various metallic salts 

 in association with colloids is likely to result in modi- 

 fication of existing notions of oxydases. The matter 



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