Abstract
PROF. OLIVER has done a useful piece of work in bringing together, within the compass of a small volume, a series of lectures on “The Exploitation of Plants in the Service of Man,” which was delivered at University College, London, in 1917. In such a collection it is inevitable that there should be differences in relative values, but the standard of the best is very high. Amongst those which strike us as particularly good are the contributions of Prof. Oliver himself, and that of Dr. Willis, formerly director of the celebrated gardens at Peradeniya. As might perhaps have been anticipated, these are concerned with the reclamation of waste lands and with the rubber industry respectively. Both are characterised by first-hand knowledge and that indefinable but very real quality that attaches to pioneer work. Dr. Balls contributes a suggestive article on cotton and its problems, but here and there he is inclined, perhaps, to assume a more o extensive technical acquaintance with the subject on the part of the reader than the latter could actually justify.
The Exploitation of Plants.
By Various Writers. Edited by Prof. Oliver. (The Imperial Studies Series.) Pp. vii + 170. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1917.) Price 2s. 6d. net.
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The Exploitation of Plants . Nature 102, 225 (1918). https://doi.org/10.1038/102225b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/102225b0