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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Dr. Jacaclis Chunder Bose, professor in the Presidency Col- 

 lege, Calcutta, but at present delivering a course of lectures in 

 the United States, has written a remarkable volume on the 

 "Irritability of Plants" in which he details his experiments in 

 studying the phenomena of plant movements. The nature of 

 the subject makes the difficulties of experimentation all but 

 insurmountable, but with a great variety of ingeniously con- 

 structed apparatus of original design he compelled various 

 ''sensitive plants," foremost of which was the well known 

 Mimosa pudica, to register their responses to a large number 

 of stimuli including light and darkness, heat, electricity, me- 

 chanical shock, fatigue, chemicals, etc. The text of the book, 

 which covers o()0 octavo pages, is illustrated by nearly 200 

 diagrams and drawings showing the machines used and the 

 results obtained. Although Dr. Bose worked with plants whose 

 movements are sufficiently noticeable to entitle them to the 

 name of ''sensitive plants," he asserts that not only are all 

 plants sensitive but all plant organs as well. Ordinary plants 

 do not appear sensitive simply because their reactions are less 

 conspicuous. The rhythmic movements of the plant tissues 

 were found to be remarkably like the rhythmic movements in 

 the tissues of animals. As one reads this book he is at a loss 

 which to admire more, the ingenuity with which the various 

 tests were devised or the patience and care with which they 

 were carried out. The book cannot fail to be of much interest 

 to all students of plant physiology. It is issued by Longmans, 

 Green & Co., London and New York, at $2.50 net. 



