BOOK REVIEWS. 



481 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



" Botany : A Text -book for Senior Students." By D. Thoday. 

 8vo. 474 pp. (University Press, Cambridge. 1915.) 55. 6d. net. 



This volume of 474 pages, well illustrated with 205 figures in 

 the text, is exceedingly clear and accurate in details, and presumably 

 capable of meeting any questions in the " Senior Cambridge Local 

 Examinations, for which it is primarily intended." It is divided into 

 five sections. I. deals with the Functions of Plant Organs and Food 

 of Plants, but only with the vegetative organs. The various subjects, 

 as chemistry of nutrition, growth and respiration, &c, are concise 

 and on the whole accurate ; but with regard to Transpiration, the 

 author regards it as a function of heat, whereas it is one of light, for 

 maxima always occur under red and violet glasses ; while Assimila- 

 tion is mainly under yellow and blue* The author does not appear 

 to distinguish transpiration from evaporation ; for the former is caused 

 by light, f the latter by heat. Moreover, no mention is made of 

 having tested with the spectroscope the glasses used. 



II. deals with Form and Structure, III. with the Reproductive 

 Organs, IV. is on Classification and Evolution, V. on Ecology. 



Ecology, or " The Study of Plants in relation to Environment," 

 is allowed one page (385), whereas Evolution is the outcome of Ecology. 

 The author makes no allusion to Darwin's and Warming's contention 

 that species arise by direct adaptation to new environments ; while 

 Schimper asserts that this is the most important part of Ecology. 

 The author still alludes to the struggle for existence as " bringing 

 about a selection of the fittest," whereas Darwin tells us that natural 

 selection is not required.} 



The author approaches very near to the true cause of evolution 

 in saying " Our object will be to discover, as far as we can, in 

 what special ways the plants are adapted to their environment." If 

 for" are adapted " he had written " adapt themselves," the Rubicon 

 would have been passed ! 



" My Garden in Autumn and Winter." By E. A. Bowles, M.A. 

 Svo. viii + 272 pp. (Jack, London, 1915.) 5s. net. 



Too many, with the passing of the summer flowers, shut to the 

 garden door, write on it " Ichabod," and pass that way no more 

 till the lure of the flaming tulip and the warm promise of summer call 



* "On some Effects of growing Plants under Glasses of different Colours," 

 Jour. Roy. Hort. Soc. 1893. 



f See Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xxii. p. 81 and vol. xxiv. p. 286. 

 X Variation, &c, ii. pp. 271, 272. 



