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Chemotaxonomie der pflanzen: Eine übersicht über die verbreitung und die systematische bedeutung der pflanzenstoffe. Vol. III
732
BOOK
The quality of the printing and binding are very good and relatively few typographical errors seem to have slipped by the editors. DONALD D. CLARKE,
Bronx,
New York
Chemotaxonomie der Pflanzen : Eine Gbersicht iiber die Verhreitung und die spstematische Bedeutung der Pflanzenstoffe. Vol. III. Dicotyledonae : Acanthaceae-Cyrillaceae b> Dr. R. Hegnauer, Professor of Pharmacognosy and Experimental Plant Systematics, University of Leiden. Birkhauser \-erlag, Base1 und Stuttgart, 19F4. 743 pp. Fr. 123. This book is the third in a series on chemical plant toxonomy which will be complete in six volumes. Volume I (1962) surveyed the Thallophyta, Bryophyta, Pteridophyta, and Gymnospermae; Volume II (1963) covered the Monocotyledonae. The present Volume III covers the occurrence of chemical substances in 79 families (Acanthaceae-Cyrillaceae). Volumes 4, 5, and 6 (in preparation) will survey the remainder of the 271 families that will be covered in this work. This volume follows, as one might expect, the same format as its predecessors. However, it would have been helpful to repeat in each volume that the dicotyledons are classified according to the Syllabus der Pjanzenfamilien by A. Engler, Volume I, 11th edition, 1954, and that the families occur in alphabetical sequence in the book. A thirty-page general introduction discusses the prosposed taxonomic relationships of the Dicotyledonae according to Wettstein, Hutchinson and Takhatajan. There follows a very brief and largely undocumented treatment of the contrasted chemical characteristics of the dicotyledons and those of the monocotyledons. So far as this treatment goes, there is little evidence of real or fundamental differences between these groups of plants. A section entitled the Alkaloid families of the dicotyledons merely presents schemata for the various classes of alkaloids based on their presumed biosynthetic pathways without any meaningful taxonomic conclusions. Having based the general comparisons of mono- and dicotyledons on rather unusual compounds,the author then selects, arbitrarily, for discussion the pseudoindicans and their related compounds. These unusual substances are so named because of their similarity to indican (CrH,&C .O. CsHn05), the glucoside which occurs in species of Indigofera. Thereafter there is an inexplicable jump to a treatment of methylsalicylate and salicyclic acid which are treated fairly comprehensively by means of an alphabetical taxonomic listing of the families, genera and species that have been reported to yield these
REVIEWS compounds. The remaining 700, or so, pages are devoted to a treatment of the individual families and the compounds they are known to contain. Under each family there is a very brief general description, which includes reference to the number of sub-families, genera and species, to anatomical orhistological characteristics, and to some visible chemical features (e.g., crystals of calcium oxalate, etc.). The pertinent references, without accomapnying titles, are listed. The author has attempted to give the structural formula of the principal chemical compounds mentioned and to refer to other naturally occurring substances to which they may be related. The work is not in any sense an account of the biogenesis of these compounds, nor does it deal critically with their isolation or identification. All the material presented with respect to each family is correlated in short statements at the end of each section. It is particularly in this final summing-up and the attempted correlation of chemistry and taxonomy that it becomes obvious that chemical plant taxonomy is only in its infancy. In fact, one wonders how far the occurrence of the simpler chemical substances in plants is determined by the same characteristics as those that are useful in taxonomy. By comparison, the differences that are genetically determined within a species, or which are nutritionally or environmentally regulated, loom large. Virtually no reference is made to the influence of these physiological or genetic factors or to the stage of development of the plants in question. The work is in general well produced except for some pages (474-475, 478-479) which, unfortunately, were unprinted in the revierwer’s copy. This series does not, to date at least, make any great contribution to the subject of chemical plant taxonomy, or even suggest that the meaningful data to compile such a classification exists. With the foregoing reservations, the work is useful insofar as it gives access to a body of plant chemical literature. The work is indexed by plant names (family, genus and species where possible) and also according to chemical substances (identified by trivial names). An author index is not included. F. C. STEWARD, Ithaca, New York Tissue Cultures in Biological Research. By G. PENSO, Head of the Department of Microbiology and D. BALDUCCI, Professor of Microbiology, Instituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy. Elsevier, New York, 1963. viii + 468 pp. $18.09. This book contains just about everything one needs to know about the techniques and uses of tissue culture. The authors state that they have “tried to collect what is currently established in
BOOK
The quality of the printing and binding are very good and relatively few typographical errors seem to have slipped by the editors. DONALD D. CLARKE,
Bronx,
New York
Chemotaxonomie der Pflanzen : Eine Gbersicht iiber die Verhreitung und die spstematische Bedeutung der Pflanzenstoffe. Vol. III. Dicotyledonae : Acanthaceae-Cyrillaceae b> Dr. R. Hegnauer, Professor of Pharmacognosy and Experimental Plant Systematics, University of Leiden. Birkhauser \-erlag, Base1 und Stuttgart, 19F4. 743 pp. Fr. 123. This book is the third in a series on chemical plant toxonomy which will be complete in six volumes. Volume I (1962) surveyed the Thallophyta, Bryophyta, Pteridophyta, and Gymnospermae; Volume II (1963) covered the Monocotyledonae. The present Volume III covers the occurrence of chemical substances in 79 families (Acanthaceae-Cyrillaceae). Volumes 4, 5, and 6 (in preparation) will survey the remainder of the 271 families that will be covered in this work. This volume follows, as one might expect, the same format as its predecessors. However, it would have been helpful to repeat in each volume that the dicotyledons are classified according to the Syllabus der Pjanzenfamilien by A. Engler, Volume I, 11th edition, 1954, and that the families occur in alphabetical sequence in the book. A thirty-page general introduction discusses the prosposed taxonomic relationships of the Dicotyledonae according to Wettstein, Hutchinson and Takhatajan. There follows a very brief and largely undocumented treatment of the contrasted chemical characteristics of the dicotyledons and those of the monocotyledons. So far as this treatment goes, there is little evidence of real or fundamental differences between these groups of plants. A section entitled the Alkaloid families of the dicotyledons merely presents schemata for the various classes of alkaloids based on their presumed biosynthetic pathways without any meaningful taxonomic conclusions. Having based the general comparisons of mono- and dicotyledons on rather unusual compounds,the author then selects, arbitrarily, for discussion the pseudoindicans and their related compounds. These unusual substances are so named because of their similarity to indican (CrH,&C .O. CsHn05), the glucoside which occurs in species of Indigofera. Thereafter there is an inexplicable jump to a treatment of methylsalicylate and salicyclic acid which are treated fairly comprehensively by means of an alphabetical taxonomic listing of the families, genera and species that have been reported to yield these
REVIEWS compounds. The remaining 700, or so, pages are devoted to a treatment of the individual families and the compounds they are known to contain. Under each family there is a very brief general description, which includes reference to the number of sub-families, genera and species, to anatomical orhistological characteristics, and to some visible chemical features (e.g., crystals of calcium oxalate, etc.). The pertinent references, without accomapnying titles, are listed. The author has attempted to give the structural formula of the principal chemical compounds mentioned and to refer to other naturally occurring substances to which they may be related. The work is not in any sense an account of the biogenesis of these compounds, nor does it deal critically with their isolation or identification. All the material presented with respect to each family is correlated in short statements at the end of each section. It is particularly in this final summing-up and the attempted correlation of chemistry and taxonomy that it becomes obvious that chemical plant taxonomy is only in its infancy. In fact, one wonders how far the occurrence of the simpler chemical substances in plants is determined by the same characteristics as those that are useful in taxonomy. By comparison, the differences that are genetically determined within a species, or which are nutritionally or environmentally regulated, loom large. Virtually no reference is made to the influence of these physiological or genetic factors or to the stage of development of the plants in question. The work is in general well produced except for some pages (474-475, 478-479) which, unfortunately, were unprinted in the revierwer’s copy. This series does not, to date at least, make any great contribution to the subject of chemical plant taxonomy, or even suggest that the meaningful data to compile such a classification exists. With the foregoing reservations, the work is useful insofar as it gives access to a body of plant chemical literature. The work is indexed by plant names (family, genus and species where possible) and also according to chemical substances (identified by trivial names). An author index is not included. F. C. STEWARD, Ithaca, New York Tissue Cultures in Biological Research. By G. PENSO, Head of the Department of Microbiology and D. BALDUCCI, Professor of Microbiology, Instituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy. Elsevier, New York, 1963. viii + 468 pp. $18.09. This book contains just about everything one needs to know about the techniques and uses of tissue culture. The authors state that they have “tried to collect what is currently established in