Abstract
WE opened this little book with pleasure, hoping to find in it an addition to the too few popular manuals of botany, and the pleasure was increased by recognising at the end some familiar and excellent illustrations. Great therefore was our disappointment when we found that instead of “assisting the student in the beginning of his work by setting him forward on a right road,” as is stated in the Preface to be its object, it would be far more likely to mislead him. Botany seems to be peculiarly unfortunate, in that every one who is fond of flowers thinks himself capable of writing a handbook, without himself possessing any accurate scientific knowledge of his subject. Some of the definitions given in this book are so bad that we should have been surprised to find them in the answers to the examination papers of the botanical classes in any of the great schools where natural science is now taught. Take four examples:—“Albumen: a gummy substance surrounding certain seeds;” “Embryo: the leaf in an immature state;” “Matrix: that upon which any other thing grows;” “Petals: leaves while in the corolla.” After this we are somewhat prepared to hear that the corolla “is made up of petals which, when expanded, are the flower-leaves, and of the stamen and pistils;” and that “county collections (of ferns) are valuable as illustrations of the fauna of particular parts.” We are utterly unable to see the object gained by the publication of this book, when beginners already have such admirable manuals as Oliver's “Lessons in Elementary Botany,” Lindley's “School Botany,” and Cooke's “Manual of Structural Botany,” neither of which, by the way, is mentioned by Mr. Dunster in the list of books recommended to the learner. Especially are we unable to understand how the names of respectable publishers, who have issued many admirable works on natural history, come to be appended to a book of this character. As we see that it is intended to be the first of a series of Handy-books upon “the popular and recreative sciences,” we would recommend the publishers to submit the manuscript of the remainder of the series to a competent judge before publication.
The Young Collector's Handy-book of Botany.
By the Rev. H. P. Dunster. (London: L. Reeve and Co., 1871.)
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B., A. The Young Collector's Handy-book of Botany . Nature 5, 201 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/005201a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/005201a0