The Irish Naturalist. 



Miirciij 



AN ATTEMPT AT PLANT ECOLOGY. 



Practical Field Botany. By A. R. Horwood, F.I..S. London : C. Gnffin, 

 cS: Co., 1914. Pp. xvi. + 193- Illustrated with 20 plates and 26 

 figures in the text. Price 5s. net. 



The title of this book does not form a very accurate clue to its con- 

 tents, and anyone expecting to find it of value for actual field use will 

 probably be much disappointed. 



The book opens with a preface in which it is stated that the informa- 

 tion in it has been gathered from many quarters including *' the 

 iSIuseums Association or Museums Journal, the Annual Reports of 

 Museums," etc. Had it been obtained as a result of the first-hand study 

 of vegetation in the field possibly the result might have been more 

 stimulating. 



Five chapters, an appendix and a bibliography follow. In the 

 appendix, amongst other things, instructions will be found for modelling 

 flowers in wax and for preserving plants in their natural colours. 



The opening chapter deals with " the scope, object and aims of botany, 

 with general notes on the subject and how, when and where to study 

 plants on the new lines." The new lines, it should be explained are 

 ecological. The following chapter discusses the special methods used 

 in collecting, preserving, mounting and storing plants for herbaria " and, 

 as may be supposed, is not very redolent of the field ! 



The third chapter consists of a disquisition on the necessity for 

 encouraging the study of botany on ecological lines, by the popularisa- 

 tion of pure life -histories of plants through nature study, museums, 

 scientific societies, and other associations, and in the university." We 

 confess our ignorance as to what is intended to be conveyed by the 

 expression ''pure life -histories." Have we thus far been guilty of 

 studying such life -histories in an impure or adulterated form ? The 

 fourth chapter contains '* general outlines of the subject to be treated, 

 as part of the life -history of a plant : an attempt to remodel the 

 process of treating the description of plant forms." 



At long last in chapter 5, which is entitled " an outline of the plant 

 formations that can be studied upon a broad and convenient basis," we 

 reach that portion of the book which should carry us to plants in the 

 field. This, however, consists mainly in an enumeration of the principle 

 types of plant habitats with copious lists of the names of the species of 

 plants likely to be found in them. It is to be feared that these bare lists 

 (sometimes giving the common at others the scientific names minus their 

 authors) are scarcely calculated to attract the beginner. Real ecological 

 treatment of the subject matter is wanting, but a word of praise should 

 be extended to most of Mr. Horn's photographs of types of vegetation, 

 reproductions of which serve as illustrations of this chapter. 



G. H. P. 



