Plant Diseases

Abstract

IT is difficult to see to what class of readers this book can be of use. The book claims to be “a concise introduction to the subject of plant diseases,” and the field surveyed is very wide, fungous and animal parasites and diseases caused by adverse cultural or weather conditions being included. Except in a few instances, as, e.g. in the chapters on diseases of coniferous wood and on beet and mangold diseases, little is said on the changes produced by disease in the plant. In some cases the enumeration of the “pests” carries no information at all, e.g. in the list of “animal pests” of leguminous plants there is a bare list of nine names. Unfortunately much of the informatipn is given in so vague a manner that the book cannot be recommended as a “primer” for the student, and it does not claim to give the detailed advice as to remedies necessary for the practical grower. One wonders what idea astudent would carry away after reading the following description (which is unaccompanied by any illustration):—“The aecidium is found below the cortex of a stem or the epidermis of a leaf”; and shares his bewilderment on reading, in the paragraph dealing with cultural methods, the sentence:—“Artificial solutions… ought to contain the substances present in the diseased specimens.”

Plant Diseases.

By Dr. Werner F. Bruck. Translated by Prof. J. R. Ainsworth-Davis. Pp. 152. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1912.) Price 2s. net.