English description top ↑
The present is the first of two instalments and is devoted to the relationships between external factors and leaf structure. In the first chapter, plants in selected locations -- ranging from humid tropical forests, through mangrove swamps and deserts right up to mountain pinnacles and laboratories -- are used as the basis for discussing complex substances known as histones? The remaining chapters are devoted to analysing the effective factors in detail: light (intensity, photo period, wave length), temperature, atmospheric factors, water, soil and heterotrophism. As far as possible, an attempt has been made in each chapter to start with what has been discovered in Nature and go on to planned experiments, and thus acquire an insight into the mutual interaction between anatomy and physiology. As well as the author's illustrations -- excellent, as always -- there are numerous tables with statistical information.
The present instalment alone gives a resumé of about 3000 publications. It is an inexhaustible source of information, not only for plant anatomists, morphologists and system analysts, but also for physiologists interested in metabolism and development, ecologists, plant geographers and people specializing in environmental protection, and plant and animal nutrition.