December io, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
475 
A Manual of Botany : including the Structure, Func¬ 
tions, Classification, Properties, and Uses of Plants. 
By Robert Bentley, F.L.S., etc. Second Edition. 
J. Churchill and Sons. 1870. 
An Elementary Course of Botany, Structural, Phy¬ 
siological, and Systematic. By Professor Arthur 
Henfrey, F.R.S., etc. Second Edition, revised and 
in part re-written by Maxwell T. Masters, M.D., 
F.R.S., etc. Van Voorst. 1870. 
One chief use of botanical text-hooks must always he 
.as a companion and aid to a course of lectures; and we 
trust that the publication within the same year of new 
editions of such important works as Balfour’s Class-hook, 
Bentley’s Manual, and Henfrey’s Elementary Course, is a 
sign of an increasing demand for instruction in botany. 
Not that a good text-hook will necessarily handle a sub¬ 
ject in precisely the same manner as it will he discussed 
in a good course of lectures. We hold that the right 
mode of treatment varies under the two circumstances. 
A text-hook must always start from the very com¬ 
mencement of the subject, taking for granted that the 
learner is entirely ignorant of it, and proceeding to un¬ 
fold it step by step in logical sequence. The lecturer 
has the great advantage that he can soon form an esti¬ 
mate of the intelligence of his class, and moreover can 
often demonstrate by a single reference to the specimens 
with which his pupils are supplied, what will take pages 
do explain. He will hence frequently he able to make 
allusions to points of structure and to phenomena, the 
detailed explanation of which is deferred to a later period 
•of the course. 
In Professor Henfrey’s ‘ Elementary Course of Botany’ 
the subject is handled in much the order that it should 
be in a course of lectures : first comes the morphology 
of each separate organ in succession, the root, stem, 
leaves, etc.; then the principles and systems of classifi¬ 
cation ; then the physiology and minute structure; and 
finally, geographical and geological botany. But, ad¬ 
mirable as this programme is in the lecture-room, it fails 
to a certain extent in the text-book; and we doubt whe¬ 
ther it would be possible for a learner unaided to gain 
an adequate knowledge of botany from this work. To 
take an instance, very early in the book we are told that 
“ adventitious roots take their origin from the cambium- 
region, tying beneath the epidermis, rind, or bark of the 
■stem, and break their way out through this.” Now this 
sentence would be quite unintelligible to the learner, in¬ 
asmuch as it is not till several hundred pages further on 
that he will find any explanation of what is meant by 
the term “ cambium-region.” The lecturer would, on 
the other hand, be able in a few words to give such ex¬ 
planation as would be sufficient for his present purpose. 
The able editor of this edition, Dr. Masters, has evidently 
frequently been hampered by the divergence of his own 
views from those of Professor Henfrey, and the work 
consequently loses something in unity. Some parts also 
have not been sufficiently brought down to the present 
lime. It might have been better to have omitted all re¬ 
ference to vegetable palaeontology than to have retained 
such a bald and incomplete outline as we find in the 
seven pages devoted to the subject. 
The relative value of scientific text-books lies so much 
in the general mode of treatment rather than in the de- 
.scriptive details, which are now almost uniformly accu¬ 
rate and reliable, that we can do little more than con¬ 
trast the two works before us in the former respect. 
Professor Bentley commences on the more logical plan of 
•tracing the vegetable structure from its simplest form ; 
'describing first the cell as an individual, tracing it through 
its various forms and degrees of complexity, to the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of tissue and the contents of cells, and hence 
proceeding to the various organs of plants, their struc¬ 
ture and functions. This plan has the advantage that it 
leads the student step by step from the known to the 
unknown; and the book can be used in the study as well 
as the lecture-room. The work being intended especially 
“ as a practical guide to the properties and uses of plants,” 
we find, following the description of each Natural Order, 
an account of its medicinal or economic properties, with 
a history of any species of special importance. This de¬ 
partment contains a large amount of information indis¬ 
pensable to the pharmaceutist, which he will not find in 
so convenient a form elsewhere. 
The best plan to give an idea of the completeness of 
the ‘ Manual’ as a Handbook of Botany, will be simply 
to recapitulate the headings of the chapters. The first 
book, Organography, or Structural and Morphological 
Botany, embraces general morphology of the plant (sim¬ 
ply introductory); elementary structure of plants, or 
vegetable histology, including the cell as an individual, 
and the kinds of cells and their connection with each 
other; organs of nutrition or vegetation, the stem, root, 
and leaf; organs of reproduction, the inflorescence, floral 
envelopes, stamens, pistil, fruit, ovule and seed; general 
morphology or theoretical structure of the flower; and 
reproductive organs of Cryptogams. The second book, 
Systematic Botany, or the Classification of Plants, in¬ 
cludes systems of classification; and the arrangement, 
character, distribution, properties, and uses of the Na¬ 
tural Orders. The third book, Physiology, embraces 
special physiology, including the physiology of the ele- 
meritary structures, physiology of the organs of nutri¬ 
tion, and physiology of the organs of reproduction ; and 
general physiology, or the life of the whole plant, includ¬ 
ing food of plants and its sources, life of the whole plant or 
the plant in action; and special phenomena of plant life. 
The very large amount of information useful to stu¬ 
dents or practisers of pharmacy will be illustrated by the 
following quotation of the properties and uses of the 
Order Marantaceie :— 
“ The rhizomes of some species contain starch, which, 
when extracted, is extensively employed for food. One 
species has been described as possessing aromatic and 
stimulant properties; this, if true, is a marked departure 
from the general properties of the Order, for one of its 
distinctive characters from Zingibcracccc is usually con¬ 
sidered to be the absence of such qualities. 
“ Ganna. —One or more species of this genus yield 
tous-les-mois , a very pure and useful starch, now largely 
consumed in this country and elsewhere. _ The exact 
species of Canna from which this starch is obtained, 
is not positively known; it is said to be C. edulis , but it 
is just as probable to be derived also from C. glauca and 
C. Achiras. A rhizome called ‘ African Turmeric,’ from 
its resemblance in appearance and properties to ordinary 
commercial turmeric, has been described by Dr. Daniell 
in the Pharmaceutical Journal. The plant producing 
it is said to be the Canna speciosa of Roscoe. It requires 
further investigation. The seeds of C. indica are com¬ 
monly known under the name of Indian Shot, from their 
black colour and hardness, etc. The seeds of this and 
other species are made use of as beads. The rhizomes 
or tubers of some species are eaten as a vegetable. 
“ Maranta. M. arundinacea. —The rhizomes or tubers 
of this plant contain a large quantity of starch, which, 
when extracted, constitutes West Indian arrowroot, one 
of the purest and best known of the amylaceous sub¬ 
stances used as food. As this arrowroot is now obtained 
from M. arundinacea in other parts of the world besides 
the West Indies, it is best distinguished as Maranta 
starch. It forms a very firm jelly, and is, perhaps, the 
most palatable and digestible starch known. The name 
arrowroot was originally applied to this plant from the 
fact of its bruised rhizome being employed by the 
native Indians as an application to the poisonous wounds 
inflicted by their arrows. The name arrowroot has since 
been given to various other starches used as food in this 
country and elsewhere. M. ramosissima is also used in 
the East Indies for obtaining arrowroot.” 
