Die Pflanzengallen (Cecidien) Mittel- und Nordeuropas, ihre Erreger und Biologie und Bestinimungstabellen Die Gallen der Pflanzen

Abstract

AMONG the byways that lie in the borderland between botany and zoology and appeal to the students of both sciences, few, if any, offer more attractions than the study of galls. That certain organisms can change the modes of action of the living substance in some other, and can make it produce new structures to benefit themselves, is an intervention of a kind to arouse interest. But that power is shared by plants and animals of widely different types, and so related to others that do not possess the power as to indicate that it has often been independently acquired. The effects produced by some amount to little more than sufficient to heal wounds, while at the other extreme we find growths unlike any uninjured structure of the host; and between these are galls of varied forms and structure, each true to its type. The wide diffusion of the power to influence the work of the protoplasm seems to point to the readiness of that substance to respond to certain kinds of stimuli, and to give some warrant for the hope that means to regulate its activities may be discovered. As yet, however, the attempts to produce galls artificially have failed.

Die Pflanzengallen (Cecidien) Mittel- und Nordeuropas, ihre Erreger und Biologie und Bestinimungstabellen.

By Dr. H. Ross. Pp. ix + 350 + x plates. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1911.) Price 9 marks.

Die Gallen der Pflanzen.

Ein Lehrbuch für Botaniker und Entomologen. By Prof. E. Küster. Pp. x + 437. (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1911.) Price 16 marks.