118 



Chemistry," the manufacture and use of food, the relations of plants 

 with water, the tissues and processes of stems and roots, repro- 

 duction and heredity in flowering plants, to descriptions of algae, 

 fungi, and other plant groups, and the final chapters on "Plants of 

 the Past" and "The Vegetation of North America." The book is 

 beautifully printed, the illustrations well chosen and well repro- 

 duced, and the text interestingly and clearly written. Even the 

 English is good — for botanists. 



The arrangement of topics is evidently designed to fit a par- 

 ticular course. The early chapters are written with a view to out- 

 door work by beginning students, and consequently seem to the 

 general reader somewhat desultory and disjointed. But with Chap- 

 ter VII we begin to reach the meat of the subject. And it is rich 

 fare, lacking neither in variety nor in nutritive qualities. A student 

 who digests the bulk of this volume will know more botany than 

 some young instructors. Such topics as the condensation and diges- 

 tion of carbohydrates and the synthesis of fats and proteins are 

 treated in far greater detail than in other general textbooks. Some 

 idea of the bias of the book may be obtained from the titles of the 

 chapters devoted to flowers : Chapter XXXI, "Initiation of Flow- 

 ers" (18 p.) ; Chapter XXXII, "Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds" (20 

 p.) ; Chapter XXXIII, "Sexual Reproduction in Flowers" (16 p.) ; 

 and Chapter XXIV, "Growth, Dormancy, and Germination of 

 Seeds" (13 p.). Physiology here wins parity with the morphological 

 detail long considered essential in a scholarly text. The only criti- 

 cism of such a treatment is that it has been perhaps carried too far. 

 The wealth of chemical detail particularly seems to this reviewer 

 rather strong meat for the average college freshman. 



One of the best features of the book is the frequent introduc- 

 tion of actual data, which initiates the reader thoroughly into scien- 

 tific method and should impress him with the nature of scientific 

 conclusions as contrasted with purely authoritarian statement. 

 Useful references for further reading are found at the ends of many 

 chapters, mostly to texts and reviews, but many to original re- 

 searches. Many subjects are treated with a wealth of tabular and 

 numerical detail which should impress and interest students. On 

 page 122, for instance, we learn that an elm tree may have 

 250,000,OCX) chloroplasts to every square inch of leaf surface, 

 and sixteen acres of total chloroplast surface. On page 313 is a 



