. | NATURE 
485 
“THURSDAY, FEBRUARY. 22, 1917. 
/ PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND TERATOLOGY. 
(x) Botany: a- Text-book for Senior Students. 
By D. Thoday. Pp. xvi+474. (Cambridge: 
_At the University Press, 1915.) Price 5s. 6d. 
net. 
(2) The Principles of Plant-Teratology. _By W. C. 
' Worsdell. Vol..i. . Pp.. xxiv + 269+ plates xxv. 
(London: The Ray Society, 1915.) Price 25s. 
net. 9 > 
(3) Some Recent Researches in- Plant Physiology. 
mby Dr W. R. G. Atkins. Pp. | xbst-328; 
(London: Whittaker and Co., 1916.) | Price 
7s. 6d. net. 
THODAY’S text-book ‘is intended 
OME 
primarily for use in eoaesl with 
the Senior Cambridge Local Examinations, but 
it is hoped that it may prove of more general 
service to teachers as well as to scholars'in the 
upper forms of secondary schools. 
author brings to bear on his task not only ‘his 
experience as a teacher, but some years’ experi- 
ence as an examiner, he should be in a fair way 
to succeed. A good text-book is one of the factors 
which may bring success in these examinations, 
but the efficient teacher and adequate provision in 
the school curriculum are also factors which cannot 
be eliminated. 
However, our concern is with Mr. Thoday’s 
book, and we congratulate him on his achieve- 
ment. It is different from other text-books. 
There is a certain refreshing originality of treat- 
ment in dealing with the common objects of the 
examination syllabus, and the matter is well and 
clearly written; it is, in fact, a readable text- 
book. The point of view is the physiological one; 
the vegetative organs of the plant are approached 
and studied as structures adapted for carrying out 
the life-functions of the plant; form and structure 
are subservient to function. The rigid morpho- 
logist will feel that an opportunity has been 
missed. Experimental work falls naturally into 
place in the subject-matter, and good use is made 
of matters of common observation in Nature. and 
plant-life. In the chapters dealing with classi- 
fication the author has worked out the characters 
of some of the best-known British families of 
curring genera and species, and the various grades 
of relationship are used to illustrate the ideas of 
evolution and variation. The last section, entitled 
“Plants in relation to their Environment,” con- 
tains a good chapter on trees and a short introduc- 
tion to the study of plant associations. Text-figures 
are sufficiently frequent and good; many of them 
are new. 
(2) The plant morphologist will find food for 
thought in plenty in Mr. Worsdell’s volume on 
“The Principles of Plant-Teratology.” In 1869 
the Ray Society issued the late Dr. Maxwell 
Masters’s work on “‘ Vegetable Teratology”; this 
was for many’ years the standard work on the 
NO. 2469, VOL. 98] 
Since! the’ 
| “double ” sporogonia. 
subject, and is even to-day the book to which one 
naturally turns for easy reference in matters 
teratological. Mr. Worsdell does no more than 
justice when he expresses himself as “in some 
' degree indebted to Dr. Masters for facts and 
ideas.” ‘The present work,” he states, ‘“‘is 
intended to present the subject in more scientific 
fashion and in quite a new form, both as regards 
the mode of treatment and the large number of 
additional facts.” The author’s position may be 
briefly summarised as follows. The work is not a 
| mere descriptive tabulation of interesting and curi- 
ous freaks, but a contribution to the evolutionary 
origin of plant-organs, of which there are three 
categories only, root, stem, and leaf, although in 
reality the stem is’ non-existent, being composed 
of leaf-bases. Comparative and teratological, as 
contrasted with developmental and anatomical, 
are the only trustworthy methods of morpho- 
logical investigation. Many abnormalities are 
progressive in character, not reversions; they are 
of great importance for the interpretation of struc- 
tutes of doubtful nature. All structures, whether 
normal or abnormal, are regarded as purposive 
rather than fortuitous in their origin. They are 
originated and maintained by the action of a 
| regulative vital force, and not by mere chemico- 
physical energies: the dynamic teleological or 
vitalistic position is upheld as against the 
mechanistic or materialistic one. This is enough 
to indicate Mr. Worsdell’s point of view and to 
show that the author invites severe criticism from 
the more orthodox plant-morphologists. | More- 
over, one cannot but feel that the insistent and 
somewhat aggressive émphasis of matters of 
theory does to some extent detract from the value 
of what is otherwise a useful piece of work. It 
is for this reason not a safe book to put into the 
hands of the non-critical student. 
Mr. Worsdell has been for many years studying 
plant-abnormalities at first hand, and the present 
volume embodies the results of his investigations 
so far as concerns the non-vascular plants and the 
vegetative organs of the vascular plants. Abnor- 
malities described by previous writers are also 
recorded and discussed, while frequent biblio- 
| graphical lists supply a large number of additional 
references. The chapter on fungi is a short one, 
and deals with the various abnormal developments 
of the sporophore of the cap-fungi. A similar 
flowering plants by reference to commonly oc i tee the Bryopbye9: 2) es eae 
are devoted to adventitious shoots and protonema 
formation; and there is a short account of 
The root of the vascular 
plant is less prone than any of. the other organs 
to deviate from the normal form, and its aberra- 
tions occupy only a few pages. The greater part 
of the book deals with the stem and the leaf. The 
second volume will deal with the flower. A useful 
feature is the large series of photographic plates, 
twenty-five in number, at the end of the volume; 
there are also a number of rather crude figures 
distributed through the text. The typography is 
clear, and there is a useful subject-index. 
(3) Dr. Atkins, in his handy little volume on 
- some recent researches in plant physiology, aims 
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