Easy Lessons in Botany, according to the Requirements of the Revised Code, 1880

Abstract

NEITHER better nor worse than the innumerable other little books of the same kind. The morphological part consists of the usual enumeration of descriptive terms, with coarsely-executed diagrams. The histology and physiology are very weak. The cell-nucleus is defined (p. 27) to be “a portion of the protoplasm denser than the rest,” which may or may not be the case, but we are further informed, which is a more doubtful statement, that “it is this part of the protoplasm which grows.” The following is at any rate a dogmatic way of stating the facts :—“By the addition of nitrogen and sulphur (taken up in water by the roots) to the constituent parts of starch, protoplasm has the power of forming albunienoids”(sic). If this is in accordance with the requirements of the Revised Code it only shows what tyranny in science is compatible with free institutions. On p. 32 we learn that “carbonic acid gas … finds its way … into the spiral vessels, which convey it to the cells of the tibro-vascular bundles.” Very good; the Revised Code ought to know. But surely as a matter of argument there is a screw loose about the following sentence:—“As the store of albumen is undivided the grain of wheat is said to be Monocotyle-donous”(p. 42). Not even the solemn name of the Revised Code can enable us to digest this without distress.

Easy Lessons in Botany, according to the Requirements of the Revised Code, 1880.

By the Author of “Plant Life”. (London: Marshall Japp and Co., 1881.)