Plant Anatomy from the Standpoint of the Development and Functions of the Tissues, and Handbook of Micro-technic

Abstract

ACCORDING to the axiom that the greater contains the less, there is justification for the title of the book, but so far as histology is distinguished from anatomy, the contents pertain rather to the domain of histology. This does not, however, correctly explain the nature of the subject-matter, as the author has followed the modern, and one has no hesitation in saying the best, practice of uniting the study of form and function; in fact, each chapter is devoted to a separate physiological problem. The arrangement is an excellent one for an elementary book, but it must be added that there is no attempt to rise beyond elementary facts. The difficulties of the stelar theory are avoided by reverting to the older conception of protoderm, procambium strands, and fundamental meristem. “Bast fibres,” as here explained, also show a return to an older, though in this case less acceptable, definition, and the nicer subtleties of distinction between fibrous cells and wood fibres are omitted. The careful and detailed descriptions of such processes as the conduction of water and solutes through the stem will be fully appreciated, but in places the author shows but small regard for the intuitive perception of the student (vide figs. 56, 87, and 92). The practical examples quoted at the end of the chapters are useful, and the general presentation of the subject-matter is marked by clearness and coordination.

Plant Anatomy from the Standpoint of the Development and Functions of the Tissues, and Handbook of Micro-technic.

By Prof. W. C. Stevens. Pp. xii+349. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1908.) Price 10s. 6d. net.