Abstract
THIS interesting little book contains much more than its title might seem to imply, since it treats, not only of flowers, but also of the lives and forms of flowering plants, their distribution and evolution. Though both readable and instructive, this booklet loses much in value as a trustworthy popular introduction to botany because its author has elected to saturate it with the extreme form of neo-Lamarckism, of which he is so fervid and, in this country, so isolated an advocate. Much of Prof. Henslow's treatment of the subject is refreshing, and in this respect the chapters on stipules and on vegetative sports, as well as the occasional references to horticultural operations, are especially worthy of note. The author's views on morphology do not, however, always accord with modern opinions; he writes, for instance, “The leaf usually consists of two parts, the leaf-stalk … and the blade …”(p. 64). “The homology of bracts is various. They may be stipular as in Magnolias, more generally are petiolar as in Hellebore …” (p. 97). Other not generally accepted views are those expressed in reference to the cause of the rosette-form of “high Alpine plants” (p. 103), the significance of circumnutation in twiners (p. 100), and the object of movements of leaves (p. 104). But most open to criticism are the explanations offered of the origin of certain structural and habitual features by the inheritance of the effects of repeated stimuli. In the second volume, on non-European flowering plants, which the author half promises, it is to be hoped that attention will be directed rather to the well-tested facts of evolution than to mere hypotheses as to the precise causes of evolution in special cases.
The Story of Wild Flowers.
By Rev. Prof. G. Henslow, &c. With forty-six figures in text. Pp. viii + 249. (London: George Newnes, Ltd., 1901.) Price 1s.
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The Story of Wild Flowers . Nature 64, 350 (1901). https://doi.org/10.1038/064350c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/064350c0