30 



probable future experience with plants, plant life, and plant 

 products is left unprovided for. Rameley's book fills this need 

 in an admirable manner without going into technicalities and 

 with the bold and wise omission of many important but strictly 

 scientific matters. Mushrooms, for example, receive about a 

 page; no mention is made of mycelium or basidiospores, but one 

 paragraph discusses their edibility and a second describes fairy 

 rings. 



The book opens with a general discussion of plant sociology, 

 including adaptations, ecological classification, and general re- 

 lations of plants to the environment. This is followed by a 

 discussion of altitude in its relation to vegetation, which is a 

 matter of prime interest to the people of such a mountainous 

 state. Special chapters then discuss the plant life of streamsides 

 and ditch banks, which in the irrigated districts are often the 

 sole remaining habitats for wild flowers, of mountain parks, of 

 mountain lakes, of the plains, of the mesas and foothills, of the 

 mountains, and of the forests. Another chapter discusses what 

 aspects of vegetation may be seen from a railway train or an 

 automobile. These all give the author an opportunity to bring 

 in brief discussions of agriculture, irrigation, tree-planting, 

 zonation and succession, soil acidity and peat-formation, and 

 numerous other subjects. These are never forced on the reader, 

 but are introduced non-didactically as a natural result of the 

 preceding discussion. Other chapters deal with color in plants, 

 including remarks about starch manufacture, insect pollination, 

 and a list of the more conspicuous wild flowers classified by 

 color; the life of a plant, including respiration, transpiration, 

 growth, inheritance, evolution, and other physiological processes; 

 the architecture of plants, in which anatomy is taken up in 

 more detail; and flowers, fruits, and seeds. The final chapter 

 presents a brief conspectus of the whole plant kingdom and 

 closes with an historical account of the development of botany 

 in the state. Appendices give a key to the trees of Colorado, a 

 list of the publications of the Colorado Vegetation Studies, a 

 catalog of the early spring flora around Boulder, and a short list 

 of botanical books recommended for high-schools and public 

 libraries. The numerous illustrations include figures of plants 

 or their parts in zinc, of Colorado vegetation in halftone, and of 

 numerous wild flowers in color. 



H. A. C.LKASON 



