Practical Physiology of Plants

Abstract

THE physiological course which Mr. Francis Darwin gave at Cambridge in 1883, was the first systematic effort, in this country, to teach the phenomena of plant-life to students by means of actual experiments. As we are told in the preface to this book, the experiments were at first demonstrated in the lecture-room; some years later, the students were required to do the practical work for themselves in the laboratory. The example set at Cambridge has been followed in other universities and colleges, to the great benefit of botanical teaching. We all recognise now that practical laboratory work is no less necessary in physiological than in morphological botany, though in the former it is certainly more difficult to organise. The present book, which embodies the results of the experience gained in practical teaching, is in two parts. Part i., on General Physiology, is the more elementary, and therefore the more widely useful; Part ii., on the Chemistry of Metabolism, is of a more advanced character, and is adapted to those students who desire to make a special study of the chemical physiology of plants. The former, we believe, is mainly the work of Mr. Darwin; the latter, of Mr. Acton.