Botany. Principles and Problems. by E. W. SinnottReview by: W. O. JamesNew Phytologist, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct. 7, 1935), p. 346Published by: Wiley on behalf of the New Phytologist TrustStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2428430 .

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346 Reviews are a few awkward expressions, such as " the disease manifests itself by a very often enormous distension of the base of the stem" (p. I60). In referring to Thielaviopsis paradoxa it is incorrect to say that this is " the cause of pineapple disease" (p. 436), for several different fungi cause disease in pineapples. The book is almost entirely free from misprints.

F. T. BRO0KS.

Botany. 'Principles and Problems. Third ed. By E. W. SINNOTT.

9 x 6 in. Pp. xix + 525, with frontispiece and 3IO figures. New York and London: McGraw Hill Book Co., Inc. I935. 2IS. net.

It has evidently been the intention of the author of this book that it shall be stimulating and "different". Remarking that a " just balance between caution and enthusiasm is hard to strike" he is yet prepared to give at least some hostages to fortune. The result can hardly be accused of dullness. He has no patience with " quaint individuals who wander absent-mindedly in woods. . . and rejoice in the use of long and unpronounceable Latin words'', though in passing he does invent " Tracheophyta ".

For a year's course the text sets wide limits. The history of botany, the nature of soils, morphogenesis and plant associations are some of the subjects introduced and not always found in elementary text-books. The method is essentially wide rather than thorough, and the book would be suitable for those whose knowledge of botany is to be rounded off at an elementary stage as well as for those who are to continue on a " concentric" system.

Practical work is not considered, but each chapter ends with questions for "thought and discussion". Some of these really should stimulate both, and, in the words of the author, help the student " to be his own Socrates". Others appear to me unanswerable.

The later chapters, dealing with groups and types of the plant kingdom, occupy nearly a third of the book. Besides descriptions of selected plants they deal at some length with origins and evolutionary tendencies within groups such as the angiosperms. This is probably a heavier weighting than the subjects would get in any elementary course in this country, where the present tendency is setting so strongly in favour of experimentalism. Similarly, the account of mitosis is of a kind that many would think dated.

Up and down the book there are a number of statements rather surprising in a third edition; e.g. within a few pages, " It is probably the protoplasm itself ... which is oxidised "; " Most of the energy liberated in respiration eventually manifests itself as heat" (surely a wrong emphasis); " The resulting alcohol may be absorbed by another organism or may be burned" (not a satis- factory synonym for biologically oxidised). The general treatment of xero- phytes, described as "drought-loving" plants, is decidedly disappointing in view of the recent interest and advances in studies of such types.

Great care has evidently been lavished on the illustrations, which consist of over three hundred half-tones and line drawings. Sixty have been specially prepared for this new edition. All are excellent with the exception of the flower drawings, and these are horrible.

Though it is improbable that any English botany teacher would wish to build his course round this book, it might well be put into the hands of students, especially students requiring a strong botanical stimulant, to provoke a flow of " thought and discussion". It would surely bring this about.

W. 0. JAMES.

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