298 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



at the present day with regard to the nature of hfe, yet the book 

 can be most profitably read and used by any student of tjiat most 

 important and most frequently neglected branch of botany — vegetable 

 physiology. 



" A Manual of Structural Botany." By Prof. H. H. Eusby, M.D. 

 8vo., viii + 248 pp. (Churchill, London, 1912.) 10s. 6d. net. 



" A condensed but fairly complete introduction to botany," as the 

 preface states, and, we may add, well printed and well illustrated. It is 

 intended in the main for students in pharmacy, but others will find it a 

 useful introduction to the scructure and terminology of plant organs. 

 A useful chapter on nomenclature and another on preserving specimens 

 are added. 



" Fungoid Diseases of Agricultural Plants." By Dr. J. Eriksson. 

 Translated by Anna Molander. 8vo., xii + 208 pp. (Bailliere, 

 Tindall and Cox, London, 1912.) 7s. 6d. net. 



Sir David Prain writes a preface to this new work, and the author's 

 preface tells us that Mr. George Massee has read the translation with 

 a view to checking the technical terms throughout. 



The book deals with the principal diseases of the most widely 

 cultivated plants, arranged according to the organisms that excite 

 the diseases, beginning with the bacteria and proceeding to the higher 

 fungi. It is extremely useful to have such a work from the pen of 

 one of the most accomplished Continental authorities done into 

 English. Diseases of Continental distribution are usually British as 

 well, and a knowledge of the measures that have proved most useful on 

 the Continent will certainly be at least suggestive here. 



Only agricultural plants are dealt with, including the commonest 

 vegetables; fruit, flowers, and such vegetables as beans, lettuce, and 

 so on find no place. 



The illustrations are an excellent feature of the book and number 

 117, three of them being coloured. Several of them have done duty 

 in other works, but many are original, and all are well chosen and 

 as typical of the diseases they purport to represent as black-and-white 

 illustrations can be. 



The difficulties of translation by one not thoroughly familiar with 

 both popular and technical terms used in plant-disease nomenclature 

 in both languages are obvious, and they have not altogether been 

 evaded in this instance. E.g. p. 47, " copper vitriol " is now an 

 unusual term for " copper sulphate "; "black pricks of corn -straw " 

 (p. 101) and a few other " common " names of diseases have a very 

 unfamiliar sound. Such instances as these, and little foreign tricks of 

 expression (for the translator has not been able altogether to get away 

 from the idiom of the original), detract somewhat from the value of 

 the book to the practical man, but he will readily make allowances, 

 and will find it most useful. 



