Plant Genetics

Abstract

THIS little book is one written by botanists for botanists. The authors state in their preface that it is designed especially for the undergraduate student in botany who wishes to obtain some knowledge of what is being done in genetics without desiring to specialise in the subject. They have attempted, so far as possible, to present an exposition of Mendeliae, or neo-Mendelian, phenomena illustrated by examples from the vegetable world alone. As to the advisability of this there is likely to be some difference of opinion, for many hold, and with some justice, that one of the instructive features of genetics for the student lies in the numerous close parallels to be found between animals and plants in respect of heredity. A discovery in an animal may at any moment throw a flood of light upon puzzling phenomena in plants, and the converse is equally true. The genetics of plants and animals are so closely interwoven that an attempt to treat of one without the other necessarily leads to a sense of incompleteness. At the same time the unity of some of the fundamental phenomena of life in the vegetable and animal kingdoms—a most valuable lesson for the young student—is apt to be lost sight of. Even the authors have had to confess that the animal cannot be entirely excluded, for they had perforce to bring in Morgan's Drosophila and Castle's rats. Nevertheless, they have succeeded in illustrating most of the important phenomena from plants alone, and the work will be of service not only to the young botanist, but perhaps even more so to the zoologist, who is apt to be hazy with regard to the special features that plants exhibit.

Plant Genetics.

By J. M. Coulter M. C. Coulter. Pp. ix + 214. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press; London: Cambridge University Press, 1918.) Price 1.50 dollars net.