(1) Introduction to Botany (2) A Flora of Norfolk (3) and (4) Wild Flowers as They Grow (5) The English Year: Spring (6) My Garden in Spring

Abstract

(1) THE authors of this excellent elementary text are practised hands in the production of books on botany for students, and the present work is mainly a condensation of their larger work published a few years ago, entitled “Practical Botany”, though from the abbreviated list of their works on the title-page one might infer that each author had published an earlier book with this name. However, it differs considerably in style from the authors previous works, and indeed from most other elementary books on botany, in two features which are consistently kept in view throughout—namely, the emphasis which is laid on the dynamic side of botany, the plant being regarded as an organism forced to maintain its existence under conditions sometimes favourable and sometimes unfavourable to it, and the constant reference to the, practical side of plant life in all its bearings. That is, while the work gives a good general grounding in botany, the ecological and the economic aspects of the subject, taken in the widest sense, are never lost sight of and at the same time are not unduly stressed. Since there are comparatively few references to plants unknown in the wild state or unfamiliar in cultivation in Britain, the book is one that can be warmly commended to teachers, at any ratu to those who have no set syllabus to work from, while those responsible for the framing of syllabuses in elementary botany might learn much from a book like this as to what is wanted in the case of a subject with such marked educational significance. The book is generously illustrated, and the figures are remarkably clear and well executed.

(1) Introduction to Botany.

By J. V. Bergen Prof. O. W. Caldwell. Pp. vii + 368. (Boston and London: Ginn and Co., n.d.) Price 5s.

(2) A Flora of Norfolk.

Edited by W. A. Nicholson. Pp. vii + 214 + 2 maps. (London: West, Newman and Co., 1914.) Price 6s.

(3) and (4) Wild Flowers as They Grow.

Photographed in colour direct from nature by H. Essenhigh Corke. With descriptive text by G. Clarke Nuttall. Sixth series. Pp. viii + 200 + plates. Seventh series. Pp. viii + 204 + plates. (London: Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1914.) Price 5s. net each.

(5) The English Year: Spring.

By W. B. Thomas A. K. Collett. Pp. ix + 334 + plates. (London and Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack, n.d.) Price 10s. 6d. net.

(6) My Garden in Spring.

By E. A. Bowles. Pp. xx + 308 + plates. (London and Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1914.) Price 5s. net.