Abstract
THERE has been little attempt at selection in this book, with the result that a great deal of material has been brought together, some of which the beginner will scarcely be able to use. Nevertheless the book is written with independent views, and will doubtless be of service to many. The illustrations are a prominent feature, but some of them are on too small a scale to be satisfactory; e.g. Fig.,67, the legend of which also contains inaccuracies, as well as the figure itself. Such figures as 330 and 913 leave much to be desired. The work touches on every phase of botany, with frequent reference to economic applications. The advisability of including in an elementary text-book such a highly speculative subject as the author's theory of geotropism is very questionable, especially since the statolith theory has received strong experimental confirmation from the work of Bose. In the chapter on heredity it is a mixing of conceptions to apply the term reduplication to the crossing-over of chromosomes. This book will probably find its greatest use as a work of reference for pharmaceutical students and as an accessory text for others. Notwithstanding the above criticisms, it is a welcome addition to botanical text-books.
A Textbook of Botany for Medical and Pharmaceutical Students.
Prof.
J.
Small
By. Pp. x + 681. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1921.) 25s. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
A Textbook of Botany for Medical and Pharmaceutical Students . Nature 107, 777 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107777b0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107777b0