Abstract
THIS little work by no means meets the expectations which its title arouses. The author states, indeed, in his preface that the scope of the work is purposely limited, but the limits are so narrow that the work will not be of much use to the student who has a competent teacher, and it will not be of any use to the beginner who is attempting the study of vegetable histology by himself. The book deals simply with the micro-chemistry of plants; the reagents are enumerated, as are also the various substances to be met with in the cells, but no attempt is made to give an account of the mode of application of the reagents for the detection of the substances, and in certain important cases (the chloriodide of zinc, for example) the mode of preparation of the reagent is not given. Not a word is said about imbedding, nor is any mention made of staining. The general mode of treatment of the subject is thoroughly unpractical. For example, silica is said to appear in plants “as a transparent deposit”; but every histologist knows that the silica in a cell-wall can only be made evident by incinerating with nitric acid.
Tables for the Use of Students and Beginners in Vegetable Histology.
By D. P. Penhallow, B.S., late Professor of Chemistry and Botany in the Imperial College of Agriculture, Japan. (Boston, 1882.)
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Tables for the Use of Students and Beginners in Vegetable Histology . Nature 27, 458 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027458a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027458a0