Reviezv. 107 
TWO BOOKS ON THE “ PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY.” 
Principes de Botanique par R. Chodat, Professeur de Botanique a 
1’ Universite de Geneve. Pp. VIII. and 744, avec 829 gravures dans 
le texte. Geneve, 1907. 
Principles of Botany by Joseph Y. Bergen and Bradley M. Davis. 
Ginn & Co., Boston, etc, 1906. 
B OOKS professing to deal with the “ principles ” of a subject do 
not always justify their profession, and the reader is apt to 
be disappointed when he finds that he is confronted with a text-book 
rather than with a work setting forth the fundamental ideas and 
conceptions that lie at the root of a department of science. While 
Messrs. Bergen & Davis are to some extent open to this reproach, 
the substance of Professor Chodat’s book fairly bears out its title. 
“ L’ auteur de ce livre,” says the Geneva Professor in the first words 
of his preface “ a voulu presenter a tous ceux qui, de pres ou de 
loin, peuvent s’ interesser aux theories de la Botanique un resume 
aussi concis que possible des principes generaux de cette branche 
du savoir humain.” He goes on to explain that he has not feared 
to draw attention to certain problems of physics and chemistry, 
because a knowledge of these subjects has become absolutely 
indispensable to biologists worthy of the name. At the same time, 
says Professor Chodat, this is not the whole of biology. The problem 
of life is bound up with an actual material which is at present 
irreducible to simple physical and chemical data, and there are 
numerous phenomena of morphology and anatomy which must be 
studied for themselves, and which can be arranged under certain 
general types. Even the best studied question can be put back 
into the workshop, and the field for work is just as vast for us as it 
was for our predecessors. 
This will give a sufficient idea of the general aim and 
scope of Professor Chodat’s very original work; we have only 
space for comment on a very few points. The subject matter is 
dealt with under four main heads:—General Physiology, the Cell 
and Tissues, Special Physiology, and Phylogeny. The section on 
General Physiology contains two chapters, on the constitution of 
living matter, and on the “ captation ” and transformation of 
energy, respectively. A brief account is given of the present state 
of knowledge on the different branches of these subjects, the 
general treatment being, as we should expect from the author, 
specially in relation to modern physico-chemical theory. In 
discussing carbon-assimilation, the author remarks that no general 
laws can be established, since individual species have their own 
peculiarities. It may be objected, however, to this statement that 
on theoretical grounds we should expect general laws, modified in 
their working by individual differences of structure, whose effects should 
be determinable. The chapter on anatomy is not the strongest part 
of the book, and the treatment of some topics, e.g., the transition 
from root to stem, and the vascular system of ferns, is not at all 
good, though the idea of giving the “ essentials of anatomy ” in a 
short compass should be a perfectly feasible one. The treatment 
of Special Physiology is novel and interesting, though the 
