The Azaleas of North America, by Alfred Rehder (forming the second portion of A Monograph of Azalea, Rhododendron Subgenus Anthodendron, by Ernest Henry Wilson and Alfred Rehder; Publ. Arnold Arboretum No. 9, 1921), is the last and really only thorough revision of the group. But the nomenclatural rules followed by Rehder differed somewhat from those now in force, so that two widespread species cannot retain the names under which they appear in Rehder’s account.
The writer had the privilege of making several field trips with M. C. Johnson, whose researches in the fields of botany was cut short by his untimely death on Oct. 31, 1961, at the age of 65. He was an ailing man at the time I first began to go with him to study the great variety of flowers and ferns in Johnson County, Kentucky, many of which were found to be rare and a few unknown to leading botanists. Mr. Johnson’s hobby had been the study of flowers, mosses and ferns ever since 1922, and he used all his spare times from that date until 1946 studying the flora of Letcher County, Ky. During this period he was employed at Jenkins, Ky., by the C. & 0. Railway Co. as agent. Mr. Johnson had completed a business course at Bowling Green University prior to accepting this position with the railway.
On August 15, 1960, in a damp pasture on Crabtree Meadows, Nelson County, Virginia, about 3300 feet up on “The Priest” in the Blue Ridge, I collected two specimens of Epilobium leptophyllum Raf. The specimens were deposited: my number 1095 in Lynchburg College Herbarium and no. 1095 in the State Herbarium at Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg.
One of the most complete and readable reference texts to come across my desk for many a month, is this work by two pomology professors at the University of California (Davis). The book deals with both the theoretical reason and the practical methods used to produce plants, in general keeping the theory in one chapter and the method in the next. This permits the reader to learn why something should be done, then to learn how it is done. The book has four main parts, dealing with general aspects of propagation, sexual propagation, asexual propagation and propagation methods for selected specific plants.
This 59-page publication of the West Virginia Geological Survey is designed to answer the questions of persons whose curiosity is aroused by the numerous fossil plants so commonly found in the coal regions of West Virginia. Brief descriptions and photographic illustrations of 35 of the more common fossil plant genera are presented, with notes on the numbers of species and the geologic horizons. A key for the identification of fossil leaf genera is provided.
This monograph provides an extremely well-written review of respiratory metabolism in plants. The author states that this book is a factual presentation of the biochemical events of importance in respiration which have been shown to occur in higher plants, without attempting to cover all aspects of the subject.
In this day of complex interscience fields, no one person can keep up with all the things he needs to know. One answer to this problem is the present volume, bringing together concise but pertinent articles on some 800 different biological fields, which enables the reader to quickly review or learn essential ideas about those fields. The coverage is excellent, ranging from historical biographies of famous workers in Biology, to philosophical attempts to explain future possibilities of certain areas. Specialized methods are usually discussed, enabling the reader to see not only why but how the science operates, as well as whether that science could serve him in one way or another. Further references to each field are usually given, these going from basic general works, to detailed, current journal articles. The illustrations are excellent, and include the entire range from simple line graphs, to continuous tone electron photomicrographs of 60,000 Ⅹ magnification or more.
This book on animal cell physiology is unique in that it relates the cell and its functions to the whole organism much more so than does the average physiology textbook. The author approaches the cell as the building block—the unit—but he insists that many cells do not live singly (with the obvious exception of the unicellular forms), and that therefore the cell as a part of an organism must be considered as it is affected by these surrounding influences. While the book relates mostly to animal cells, chapters on photosynthesis, as well as common background materials, make it interesting to all biologists.
A new short text in plant ecology, intended for a semester or quarter course, is this text on the plant community. The book does not strictly follow the standard autecology-synecology approach, but discusses the community as a total system, resulting from all organisms present, and their interrelationships to each other. It is well made and well illustrated, with several photographs, charts, etc.
This first real flora of the province (previous treatments were merely catalogs, weed bulletins, etc.) is intended to “serve the needs’ of those who want to know what wild plants are present that may serve as hosts to fungus or insect diseases of crop plants, or what noxious weeds are present that should be stamped out. At the same time, a survey of the plants serves the broader interests of plant geographers who wish to know what species occur and how far agriculture has modified the natural flora.”