NATURE 
THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1885 
TWO BOTANICAL TRANSLATIONS FROM 
THE GERMAN 
I. Zext-Book of General Botany. By Dr. W. J. Behrens. 
Translation from the Second German Edition. Re- 
vised by Patrick Geddes, F.R.S.E. (Edinburgh: 
Young J. Pentland, 1885.) 
Il. A Guide for the Microscopical Investigation of Veget- 
able Substances. From the German of Dr. Julius 
Wilhelm Behrens. Translated and Edited by Rev. 
A. B. Hervey, A.M., assisted by R. H. Ward, M.D., 
F.R.M.S. (Boston: S. E. Cassino and Co., 1885.) 
Us STUDENT of science in our Universities on 
running his eye along his bookshelves can hardly 
fail to be struck by the large proportion of translations 
which find their place there ; in physics and in chemistry 
the proportion of them is large, but in biology and 
especially in botany the original productions of this 
country hardly hold their own against their foreign com- 
petitors. It must be freely admitted that there was a 
time, not long ago, when botanical laboratory work had 
fallen to a low ebb in England; the botanists of this 
country had failed to keep pace in this branch of their 
subject with their contemporaries on the Continent, and 
it was chiefly by the translation of the text-book of Sachs 
that laboratory work received a new stimulus on this side 
of the Channel. The translation of that work some 
twelve years ago has been followed by others of standard 
books, and we have reason to expect that their number 
will be further increased within a short period. Any 
reasonable person will welcome the translation of standard 
and classical works; their production is beneficial, and 
they may at times even bring about wholesome revolutions. 
But though the most important translations produced 
recently are from the German, it does not necessarily 
follow that all German text-books are good, and the first 
of the two books above named is an illustration of the 
truth of this. 
Perhaps the greatest difficulty in the construction of an 
elementary text-book which aims at the general treatment 
of a science is suitably to balance the several parts of the 
subject, bringing out at length those parts of the science 
which are important to elementary students, and placing 
in the background those branches which are of less im- 
portance ; it is on this rock that writers of text-books 
have most often split, and this text-book of Dr. Behrens 
is no exception. But it is also essential that a text-book 
shall be accurate in its facts; it will be seen from the 
quotations below that Dr. Behrens’s book fails repeatedly 
in this respect. 
The external morphology of the higher plants, including 
the structure of the flower and the principles of classifica- 
tion, occupies the first 160 pages ; the treatment is neither 
better nor worse than that usual in text-books of the 
present day. Then follows, under the head of “ Physio- 
logical Botany,” an exposition of 70 pages in length on 
“flowers and insects,” and transport of seeds. Anatomy 
and physiology judiciously welded together occupy 80 
VOL. XXXII.—No. 818 
193 
pages, while the whole series of ‘‘ Lower Plants,” including 
the Vascular Cryptogams, are dismissed in less than 40 
pages, barely half of the space devoted to “flowers and 
insects, &c.” If we take a rough estimate of the balance 
of the book by the number of pages devoted to the 
several branches it is clear the lower plants come off the 
worst, and a quotation will illustrate the result. On 
page 332 the following is the whole account given of the 
Florideze ;—“ The Florideze are sea-weeds containing red 
or brown colouring matter. They are distinguished from 
the sea-wracks by the circumstance that their spores are 
generated in capsules (cystocarps, 7, Fig. 390), which 
arise in the axils of the leaf-like lobes of the thallus (s.@).” 
Then follows a short description of Batrachospermum. 
Not only is this description insufficient and useless to 
a student, but it is also obviously inaccurate. Of the other 
inaccuracies a few may be cited. In Fig. 371 the pit- 
membranes in the wood of Pzmus sylvestris are altogether 
omitted ; the flattened stems of Phy//ocladus are described 
as leaves in the explanation of Fig. 408, notwithstanding 
the tall talk on morphology on pp. 237-8. On p. 350 we 
read: “In the highest Cryptogams only are the sporangia 
formed by leaves, or homologues of leaves ; in the 
Phanerogams this is always the case ;” and, on p. Io!, 
“as all Phanerogams have either one or two seed-leaves, 
&c.” The above quotations by no means exhaust the 
inaccuracies of the book. 
In not a few cases statements are made which can only 
confuse the student. Thus on p. 352 we read: “In the 
Metasperms the two generations of the vascular Crypto- 
gams are represented by one.” And again, on p. 314, 
“Spores are entirely destitute of an embryo, having 
plumule, radicle and cotyledons.” A man who can write 
such sentences shows that he is not in sympathy with the 
student. 
Perhaps the most prominent error in the book is one 
of omission. In describing the stomata a special para- 
graph is devoted on p. 283 to their function, but not a 
word is said of transpiration ; on turning to the descrip- 
tion of transpiration on p. 305 the stomata are not 
mentioned! And this is a book which aims, as stated in 
the preface, at placing the student “at the newest stand- 
point of the science” ! 
Enough has now been said to show that the book is far 
from being a model text-book; but it must not be con- 
cluded that it is entirely without merit ; many of the 
illustrations are good, and the exposition is for the most 
part clear, while historical notes interspersed here and 
there in the text lend additional interest. It is, however, 
obvious that neither in point of accuracy nor of balance 
is the book so near an approach to the ideal elementary 
text-book as to merit the honour, or deserve the trouble 
of translation. 
The above notice has been extended to greater length 
than the importance of Dr. Behrens’s text-book deserved, 
because the publication of this translation marks in a 
certain sense an epoch in the progress of botany in this 
country. For the last twelve years we have been dependent 
in great measure upon Germany for our larger text-books ; 
we have in that respect been leading a parasitic existence, 
or rather passing through a period of healthy symbiosis, 
such as that of the embryo on the parent plant ; the time 
is fast approaching when we may expect the young plant 
K 
