121 



functions of plants to give a good basis for understanding useful 

 plant products. The last section — The Enjoyment of Plants — is on 

 the order of what is commonly called nature study and forms a 

 fitting conclusion to the book. 



Part one — The Nature of The Plant World — and the chapters 

 in parts two and three on the manufacture of food and on the plant 

 skeleton — comprising nearly one-third of the book, is much the 

 same material, in a simplified form, found in the standard botany 

 texts. Such subjects as protoplasm, cells, types of plants, leaf and 

 stem structure, photosynthesis and classification are discussed. In 

 the chapter on Evolution of Plant Reproduction the discussion of 

 alternation of generation is adequate, while the diagrams showing 

 the life histories of moss, fern, pine and apple tree are excellent. 

 Adaptations for wind and insect pollination are given in a concise 

 but satisfactory manner. The chapter on the origin of cultivated 

 plants has a little on plant breeding, including hybridizing, but 

 with no mention of genes nor of Mendel. 



Part two describes most of the food plants of the world under 

 the heads of vegetable foods, cereals, legumes, berries, orchard 

 fruits, sugars, food accessories and beverage plants. Part three on 

 wood, forestry and fiber plants, gives in addition to descriptions of 

 wood and its uses, lumbering, forestry and forest conservation, 

 brief descriptions of nearly all the trees used for lumber in the 

 United States. In addition to the fiber producing plants there is 

 an account of artificial fibers, such as rayon, and their manufacture. 

 Part four considers latex producing plants and drug plants. Tobacco 

 being considered a drug plant, as is correct, though possibly not in 

 accord with the common idea. 



Plants harmful to man takes up bacteria and the diseases they 

 cause both to man and cultivated plants, also fungi and plant dis- 

 eases. This completes the part of the book dealing with the eco- 

 nomic uses and harms of plants. 



The last chapters are on wild flowers and ornamental plants. 

 "To know a few of the common plant neighbors, .... to under- 

 stand their distribution and origin — all make for a fuller' and 

 richer life." The characters of twenty of the larger plant families 

 are given with descriptions of common flowers of each. As flowers 

 from all parts of the country are described and illustrated, the book 

 will be as interesting to students from the far west as from the 



