Sense Organs in the Vegetable Kingdom

Abstract

MR. HUXLEY has truly said¹ that “perhaps the most remarkable service to the philosophy of biology rendered by Mr. Darwin is the reconciliation of teleology and morphology, and the explanation of the facts of both, which his views offer.” Prof. Haberlandt is a devoted adherent to the school of evolutionary teleology; one of his earliest publications (in 1877) was a study of the protective adaptations of seedlings, and the desire to understand the meaning of every detail of plant-structure is still⁴ the key to his activity. It has led him, following the footsteps of Schwendener, to specialise in what he names physiological anatomy, which might with equal propriety be termed teleological or adaptive anatomy. Haberlandt's book,² in which he elucidates the minuter structure of plants from this point of view, is a recognised classic and is found in every botanical library in the world. The present work will, we think, only add to his reputation as an investigator.

Sinnesorgane in Pflanzenreich zur Perception mechanischer Reize.

Von Dr. G. Haberlandt Professor an der Universität Graz. Pp. viii + 163; 6 plates. (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1901.) Price 9s. net.