Abstract
THE high praise we gave to Prof Kerner's Pflanzenleben when it appeared, makes it almost unnecessary for us to say much about the English edition now in course of publication, and which will be completed in sixteen monthly parts. The German work was said in these columns to be “the best account of the vegetable kingdom for general readers which has yet been produced.” This judgment can also be applied to the translation which Prof. Oliver has made, with the assistance of Miss Marian Busk and Miss Mary Ewart. In translating a work, some of the brilliancy of the original is necessarily lost. It is difficult, however, to find awkward expressions in the pages before us; in fact, very few of the idiomatic phrases of the original work have survived. And the translation is scientifically accurate, as well as entertaining and instructive. Lovers of nature will find every page of the book interesting, and the serious student of botany will derive great advantage from its perusal. The illustrations are beautiful, and, what is more necessary, true to nature. The complete work contains about one thousand engravings on wood, and sixteen plates in colours. Botanical science wilt benefit by the issue of Prof. Oliver's edition of a splendid book.
The Natural History of Plants, from the German of Prof. Anton Kerner von Marilaun.
By Prof. F. W. Oliver (London, Glasgow, and Dublin: Blackie and Son, 1894.)
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Our Book Shelf. Nature 50, 28 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050028a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050028a0