678 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1036 



from page 543 to page 6Y3, presumably to 

 cover the explanatory leaves facing the plates. 



J. A. Allen 

 American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York 



Nature and Development of Plants. By 

 Carlton C. Curtis, Professor of Botany in 

 Columbia University. Illustrated. New 

 York, Henry Holt & Company. 1914. Pp. 

 vii.+ 506. 



A few years ago it fell to the reviewer's lot 

 to discuss in these columns the first edition 

 of this excellent text, and it is with pleasure 

 that he offers herewith his comments on its 

 recent revision. 



It is well that a book of this kind has met 

 with that degree of appreciation and success 

 which has warranted its third edition in so 

 short a time. It is rare among our text-books 

 of botany that the essential facts of the sci- 

 ence are presented in a style at once so clear 

 and attractive as to hold the attention of the 

 casual reader, to say nothing of its acceptabil- 

 ity to students. Too often is it the tendency 

 among writers to kill, in the average stu- 

 dent, all interest in a subject naturally engag- 

 ing, by a dictionary style of composition and 

 a pedantic devotion to technical terminology. 

 Technical terms are well enough in their 

 place, but their acquisition is not the end of 

 botanical study, and to present the nature and 

 development of plants accurately and in simple 

 language demands a keener appreciation of 

 the facts and their relations, than it may re- 

 quire to clothe the subject in the diction of a 

 specialist. 



One of the points in which this book is 

 especially to be commended is the effort of 

 its author to direct attention to the economic 

 bearings of the subject. While the deeper 

 thinker has no difficulty in appreciating the 

 practical value of pure science, so-called, the 

 fact remains that most students are stimu- 

 lated by a perception of the relation of this 

 or that fact to human weKare, and the more 

 the facts of such relation are emphasized, the 

 less will botany have to contend for its just 

 place in the academic program. 



It is the aim of the author, as stated in the 

 preface, that the mastery of this text shall 

 exact strenuous effort on the part of the stu- 

 dent, an excellent motive from the pedagogical 

 standpoint, but an end which is better reached 

 in the laboratory than elsewhere. Such a pur- 

 pose would hardly be achieved in the present 

 volume with its clear and simple style, unless 

 it be in the mass and suggestiveness of its 

 fact, which we take to be the author's intent. 



The book before us is divided into two parts. 

 The first deals with the plant as an organ- 

 ism, definite, vital, dynamic. In this the 

 topics of photosynthesis, transpiration, absorp- 

 tion, growth, reproduction, etc., as well as the 

 structure of the tissues concerned, are treated 

 with special reference to the seed plant and 

 introduces the significance of plant structures 

 and life. Part two presents the subkingdoms 

 of the plant world and their more common 

 representatives, setting forth the principal 

 features of relationship and evolution. The 

 book should form the basis of a year's study, 

 supplemented by lectures and laboratory work. 

 The illustrations are excellent and well chosen. 

 J. E. Kirk WOOD 



Missoula, Mont. 



BOTANICAL NOTES 



THE ANNIVERSARY OF A GREAT GARDEN 



Several months ago the botanists of the 

 world were asked to come to St. Louis about 

 the middle of October to celebrate the twenty- 

 fifth anniversary of the organization of the 

 board of trustees of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden. And in planning the celebration 

 those in charge wisely provided for a dignified 

 program of scientific papers of notable merit, 

 rather than for a series of congratulatory ad- 

 dresses. Of course there were some congratu- 

 lations, but these were confined to the after- 

 dinner speeches, at the close of the anni- 

 versary exercises. So there was a minimum 

 of inane congratulations, and a maximum of 

 notably meritorious botanical papers. Th« 

 example of the managers of this program is 

 commended to other managers of anniversary 

 exercises. 



Here it should be remembered that Henry 



