95 



of all the species found in North America. The fruits are so 

 characteristic that the species can usually be identified from 

 these alone. N. L. Britton 



Life of Plants* 



The title of this little book is too modest and conservative. 

 The author's aim as given in the preface is "to suggest that 

 Science is more than a body of doctrine — an illumination of 

 life." The first sentence of the introductory chapter "the 

 study of plants is an adventure unto another world, the inhabit- 

 ants of which are strangely different from those of the animal 

 world," suggests what the reader will find throughout, that the 

 book is written in a manner to make the life of plants real and 

 active. As far as is possible in a book of its size, the latest 

 discoveries in plant physiology are given in simple language 

 that can be understood by the non-scientific reader. The 

 descriptions of colloids and their work in absorption, of the part 

 played by enzymes, of the growth of the cell, of the responses 

 to stimuli and their transmission are all clear and definite. 

 Each of the nine chapters begins with an outline of the contents. 

 Chapter VIII, for example: — "Variation and heredity; Evolu- 

 tion; Reproduction; asexual and sexual; Cell and nuclear divi- 

 sion; The Chromosomes as the material bases of Heredity; 

 The experimental breeding of plants; Mendelian inheritance." 

 The explanation of Mendelism is accompanied by simple dia- 

 grams and one plate. Some of the modifications and corollaries 

 of the law are explained or suggested. If the general reader 

 carries away the idea that Mendelian inheritance is the chief 

 factor in evolution, the concluding paragraph of the chapter 

 shows that the author did not intend to give such an impression. 

 "The task with which this chapter was charged is now done. 

 It has given a glimpse of the Mendelian threads out of which 

 the fabric of life is woven and by which that fabric is maintained 

 and renewed. The larger enterprise, to inquire into the nature 

 of variation, and to consider the part played by natural selec- 

 tion or the influence of environment in evolution, may be left 

 to the authors of the companion volume on the lives of animals; 



* Life of Plants, Sir Frederick Keeble, XII, 256 pp., 51 fig. Clarendon Science 

 Series. Oxford University Press, American Branch, New York, 1926, ^1.75. 



