AN INTRODUCTION TO PLANT LIFE

By Carl L. Wilson and Julia M. Haber. Henry Holt and Company, New York.

It is refreshing to find a textbook in any science written for the majority of students in the class rather than for that small proportion who intend to major in the field. To find one so written without sacrificing accuracy and scholarship is even better.

After an introductory chapter on the importance of plants three chapters are devoted to plant anatomy. The interest is held throughout by constant linking of structure with function and by the introduction of economic aspects, such as the use of vegetable fibers in textiles or the relation of structure to use as food. Similarly the next four chapters, in dealing with plant physiology, introduce the importance of various processes, not only in the economy of the plant but also in relation to man's use of the plants.

Two chapters each on bacteria and fungi stress particularly their importance to man, and the chapter of algae adopts this same scheme, with the addition of certain evolutionary problems which are further carried over into the chapter on ferns.

Some aspects of plant evolution are next dealt with, an excellent summary of the geologic history of plants and of some problems which plants have successfully solved in their evolution. The same evolutionary point of view is carried on through the chapters on the seed and the fruit. The book closes with an account of how plants inherit.

To the layman the aspects stressed in the review are the most interesting. To the biologist the book is also recommended by the wealth of illustrations, and further by their newness. Mrs. Haber's fine drawings with the many new photographic' illustrations, a good proportion the work of the senior author, add greatly to the book's interest and usefulness.