The Anatomy of the Nettle

Abstract

WORK of more than 250 pages devoted exclusively to the anatomy of the vegetative organs in one species of nettle is a publication of a somewhat unusual kind, even in these days of scientific specialisation. The author has evidently bestowed a vast amount of labour on his subject. He states in his introduction that no less than 15,000 sections had to be made in the course of his investigation of this one plant, and twenty-three beautifully executed plates bear witness to the laborious accuracy with which the work has been carried out. The treatise is one which hardly admits of an abstract, as in a monograph of this kind details are everything. We shall only attempt to give a sketch of the order in which the author has arranged his facts, and to indicate one or two points on which his conclusions have some general interest.

Recherches anatomiques sur les Organes végétatifs de l'Urtica dioica, L.

By A. Gravis. (Brussels, 1885.)