Abstract
“YE shall know them by their fruits” might well have served as the fore-word to this little volume. It deals only “with those plants which bear attractively coloured fruits,” and might, therefore, be classed by the reviewer among that very large class of books which are made to look at rather than for any more serious purpose. The very first chapter, on “Adaptations of Fruits and Seeds for Dispersal and Protection,” serves to dispel that notion. It consists only of some half-dozen pages, but those pages are instructive, and, better still, suggestive. Then comes a list of “definitions,” few in number, but adequate to a book of these pretensions, especially as it is supplemented by a glossary at the end. “A Guide to the Plant Families Represented” comes next in order, and consists of an analytical table by means of which the several families may be discriminated by the observation of the variations in the character of their fruits. This seems to be carefully compiled, and is, so far as we have seen, accurate, but its value can only be tested by actual use in the field.
How to Know Wild Fruits: a Guide to Plants when not in Flower by Means of Fruit and Leaf.
By Maude Gridley Peterson. Pp. xliii + 340; illustrated. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.) Price 6s. 6d. net.
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How to Know Wild Fruits: a Guide to Plants when not in Flower by Means of Fruit and Leaf . Nature 72, 428 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072428a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072428a0