1915- 



Reviews. 



REVIEW. 



BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. 



Junior Botany. By F. Cavers, d.sc, f.l.s. London : W. B. Clive, 1915. 

 \ Pp. 288. Price 2S. 6d. 



The number of books on elementary botany must be almost legion, 

 and still they come. According to its preface the special object of the 

 present one is simplicity of treatment and avoidance of overmuch detail. 

 The book is divided into two parts : Section I. being an introductory 

 course in physics and chemistry, and constituting rather less than one- 

 fourth of the book, while Section II. deals with elementary botany. 



There are probably others besides the present reviewer who would 

 doubt the advantage of including the subject-matter of Section I. in a 

 book of this kind. The author himself appears to feel his limitations in 

 the matter, owing to want of space ; and seeing that there is no lack of 

 books serving to give a good elementary introduction to physical and 

 chemical science it might have been better to rely on one of them rather 

 than attempt a necessarily limited treatment of them in a book on botany. 



After a general account dealing with the principal parts of the flowering 

 plant, succeeding chapters take up the study of the seed and germination, 

 nutrition, respiration, transpiration, the structure and functions of the leaf, 

 root, and stem, as well as growth, movement, and adaptation. These 

 matters are dealt with largely from an experimental standpoint, and it is a 

 welcome and commendable feature of the book that the long-standing 

 divorce between morphology and physiology is replaced by the more 

 sensible hand -in -hand treatment. 



The last four chapters dealing with the general characters of the 

 vegetative organs, flowers and their work, fruits and seeds, and some 

 families of flowering plants, remind one, perhaps, of the more old-fashioned 

 botany, where terms are described or families diagnosed, and examples 

 given to illustrate them. Even here, however, the paragraphs devoted to 

 methods of pollination and seed dispersal tend to reheve much that would 

 otherwise be rather dull. 



It seems a great pity that a chapter or two could not have been devoted 

 to a study of plants in the field, showing their relations to each other, 

 and to their various environments, the more so seeing that the author is 

 pre-eminently fitted to deal with this side of plant life. The inclusion of 

 such matter would more than compensate for the total suppression of 

 Section I. But the book is based unfortunately upon syllabuses, which 

 explains much, although in justice it must be said that, for those who must 

 be bound down by such things, without doubt it succeeds in its aim, and 

 will be found valuable. 



In his preface the author appeals for corrections or criticisms which 

 might serve to improve the book if a further edition is called for. Had he 

 asked for suggestions of a wider nature we should have liked to advise him 

 to burn his syllabuses and give us an elementary book on botany out of his 

 own heart, as a teacher. 



G. H. P. 



