Abstract
THE large variety of text-books of botany which have been published during the last few years, in Great Britain and in America, render it difficult for any addition to their number to present novelty of either treatment or subject matter. Most such works tend towards one of two extremes according as they appear to aim, on one hand, at imparting the maximum number of facts in the minimum of space, which in the hands of the inexperienced writer may lead to the endeavour to include all aspects of the subject, even perhaps insecurely founded hypotheses; or, on the other hand, the author may emphasise the more philosophical aspects of the subject, sometimes even to the exclusion of essential data. The best textbooks are those which most nearly attain the balanced combination of these two aspects, and whilst subordinating facts to the illustration of principles, nevertheless provide the student with such a foundation of knowledge as shall enable him to build securely the superstructure of his later studies. It is in the selection of the illustrative data and its manner of presentation as part of a co-ordinated concept of vegetable life that the student gains by the experience of the author, provided that the latter has not forgotten with the passage of time the rungs on which he slipped as he himself climbed the ladder of progress.
(1) A Class Book of Botany.
By Ernest Stenhouse. Pp. xi + 514. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1925.) 7s. 6d.
(2) A Textbook of General Botany.
By Prof. William H. Brown. Pp. xi + 484. (Boston, New York and London: Ginn and Co., 1925.) 13s. 6d. net.
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S., E. (1) A Class Book of Botany (2) A Textbook of General Botany. Nature 116, 568 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116568a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116568a0