CURRENT LITERATURE 



BOOK REVIEWS 

 The Chicago textbook 1 



Of the three parts composing the Chicago Textbook of Botany for Colleges 



and Universities, "Morphology" by Coulter and "Physiology" by Barnes 



appeared nearly two years ago, and were noticed in this journal 2 , while 



'Ecology" by Cowles, concluding the work, appeared in January and is now 

 before us. 



However eagerly parts I and II were anticipated by all concerned with 

 botanical education, an even warmer welcome has been ready for part III, 

 because, while the former had predecessors, the latter has not. What, then, 

 are the characteristics of this first compendious textbook of ecology ? In the 

 first place, as most botanists will notice with pleased surprise, the book is 

 primarily a description and analysis of the ecological factors, treated in connec- 

 tion with the principal organs — roots, stems, leaves, etc. — with which they are 

 most closely associated; while the synthetic phases of the subject — those 

 discussions of associations, formations, societies, etc., which have to come to 

 stand in the minds of most people as synonymous with the very word ecology 

 are relegated to a single brief chapter. This is wise, because it is becoming 

 quite plain that the relative barrenness of synthetic ecology is a natural con- 

 sequence of the newness, crudeness, and deficiencies of our knowledge of 

 analytical ecology. In the second place, the book is a remarkably clear and 

 forceful presentation of its subject, the exposition, indeed, being in no wise 

 inferior to the high standard of the preceding parts, while occasional important 

 passages (e.g., the description of photosynthesis on pp. 525-526) are notably 

 effective. Furthermore, a striking quality of the book is completeness, but 

 it is a question whether in this feature a virtue has not been carried so far as 

 to constitute a fault; for so detailed is the treatment, and so obvious is the 

 intention to leave no important phase of the subject untouched, that the work 

 is carried out of the field of the textbook, in which rigid selection and propor- 

 tion are essential, into that of the handbook, where completeness is of course 

 a very first requisite. This view receives incidental confirmation from the 

 length of this part in comparison with the others, for it comprises no less than 

 479 pages, as contrasted with the 296 of part I, which covered all of morphology, 



Barnes 



Vol. II. Ecology. 



ovo, pp. 480. figs. 5?*. New York: American Book Co., 191 2. $2.00. 



Bot. Gaz. 51:67. ion. 



73 



