Handbuch der Blütenbiologie

Abstract

THIS valuable summary of available information concerning the pollination of exotic flowers maintains the high standard of the preceding volumes, othough it naturally deals with knowledge essentially fragmentary and only rarely founded on a statistical basis. The work does not limit itself to imparting information upon actual observations on pollination, but in some cases includes accounts of the forms and colours of flowers, the arrangement of their nectaries, and even the microscopical details of fertilisation. As examples of the various matters dealt with, the following may be cited:—Freycinetia and its suggested pollination by bats, the remarkable synchronous blossoming habits of Dendrobium crumenatum, parthenogenesis in Ficus, Kooders's work on tropical geocarpous plants, the fertilisation of Rhopalocnemis, the peculiar flowers of the commelinaceous Cochliostema and their morphology, species of Yucca and their relations with Pronuba. Handbuch der Blütenbiologie. Begründet von Dr. Paul Knuth. iii. Band. Die bisher in aussereuropäischen Gebieten gemachten blüten-biologischen Beobachtungen unter Mitwirkung von Dr. Otto Appel. Bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Dr. Ernst Loew. i. Theil. Cycadaceæ bis tornaceæ. Pp. 570; mit 141 Abbildungen im Text. (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1904.) Price 17s. net.