BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
New Flora of the British Isles. Clive Stace. 1,226 pp., 149 black-and-white illustrations.
Flowering Earth. Donald Culross Peattie. xii + 260 pp., 7 wood-engravings by Paul Landacre.
The English Garden Abroad. Charles Quest-Ritson. 232 pp., many black-and-white and colour illustrations.     

SHORT REVIEWS: Victoria Matthews

Book reviewed in this article:
Shrubs Through the Seasons. Roy Lancaster. 176 pp., many colour photographs.
Hemerocallis - Day Lilies by Walter Erhardt. 160 pp., 8 colour plates, line-drawings.
Trees. Allen J. Coombes. 320 pp., over 1,000 colour photographs.
The Healthy Indoor Plant. Charles C. Powell and Rosemarie Rossetti. vi + 297 pp., many monochrome illustrations.
Dried Flowers from the Garden. Molly Ephraums and Jane Ironside.
Clematis. Ethne Ruess Clarke. 48 pp., colour photographs.
The Historic Gardens of Wales. Elisabeth Whittle. 80 pp., 60 colour and 60 black-and-white illustrations.
The Story of Gardening. Martin Hoyles. 313 pp., monochrome illustrations.
Saxifrages. Winton Harding. 152 pp., 31 colour photographs, line drawings.     

Reviews of publications

Book reviewed in this article:
New Plant Sources for Drugs and Food from the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium , by Siri von Reis and Frank J. Lipp, Jr.
Botany: Plant Biology and its Relation to Human Afairs , by Jean H. Langenheim & Kenneth V. Thimann.
How to Know Western Australian WildJEowers, Part IV , (2nd edition) by B. J. Grieve & W. E. Blackall.
Thonner's Analytical Key to the Families of Flowering Plants , by R. Geesink, A. J. M. Leeuwenberg, C. E. Ridsdale & J. F. Feldkamp.
Insects of an Amazon Forest , by N. D. Penny and J. R. Arias.
Ordering the World: A History of Classzfying Man , by David Knight.     

REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article:
The Physiology of the Garden Pea. Ed. by J. F. Sutcliffe and J. S. Pate.
A Biologist's Mathematics. By David R. Causton.
Die Hölzer Mitteleuropas. By D. Grosser.
Pleistocene Geology and Biology. By R. G. West.
Climate: Present, Past and Future. Vol. 2. Climatic history and the future. By H. H. Lamb.
Studies in the Scottish Lateglacial Environment. Ed. by J. M. Gray and J. J. Lowe.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Willows: the genus Salix. Christopher Newsholme. 224 pp., 65 colour plates, 159 black-and-white figures.
Blooms of Bressingham Garden Plants. Alan and Adrian Bloom. 320 pp., 750 + colour photographs.     

REVIEWS

Insect Pests of Farm, Garden and Orchard. By E. D wight S anderson , Ph.D.
Handbuch der Pflanzenkrankheiten. By Dr L. R eh .
Chemical Embryology. By Dr J oseph N eedham .
Common Pests. How to Control Some of the Pests that Affect Man's Health, Happiness and Welfare. By R ennie W. D oane .
A Text-Book of Experimental Cytology. By J. G ray , M.A., F.E.S.     

REVIEWS

The Genetics of Garden Plants. By M. B. C rane and W. J. C. L awrence .
Principles of Plant Physiology. By J ames B onner and A rthur W. G alston .
Pflanzliche infectionslehre. By E rnst G äumann .
Carbon Dioxide Fixation and Photosynthesis. Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology.     

What changed the demography of an introduced population of an herbivorous lady beetle?

1. The population dynamics of an introduced population of Epilachna niponica (Lewis) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) was investigated for a 7-year period following its introduction to a site outside of its natural range. A population from Asiu Experimental Forest was introduced to Kyoto University Botanical Garden, 10 km south of its natural distribution.
2. Arthropod predation was much lower in the introduced than in the source population. As a result of the lower predation in the Botanical Garden, larvae reached densities five times higher than in the Asiu Forest and host plants were frequently defoliated. Food shortage caused larval deaths from starvation and increased dispersal.
3. The density of the introduced population was much more variable than that of the source population. The variation in population density in both the introduced and source populations is limited by density-dependent reduction in fecundity and female survival. However, variation in the introduced population's density was increased due to host plant defoliation that resulted in overcompensating density-dependent mortality. In years with high larval density plants were defoliated and this increased adult mortality during the prehibernation period. Besides, the density-dependent regulatory mechanisms that produce population stability were weaker in the introduced population than in the source population.     

REVIEWS

The Chemical Activities of Bacteria. By E. F. G ale , B.A., Ph.D.
Heredity and Variation in Micro-organisms. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology.
The Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain. By H erbert W illiam R ickett .
The Living Plant. By I. V. N ewman .
Hormones and Horticulture. The use of special chemicals in the control of plant growth. By G eorge S. A very and E lizabeth B indloss J ohnson , with the collaboration of R uth M. A ddoms and B etty F. T homson .
Plant Physiology. By M eirion T homas .
The Genetics of Garden Plants. By M. B. C rane and W. J. C. L awrence , with a foreword by S ir D aniel H all .
Plant Viruses. By K enneth M. S mith , F.R.S.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Plant, Animal & Anatomical Illustration in Art & Science . Compiled by Gavin D. R. Bridson and James J. White, xxxvii + 450 pp., 11 black-and-white illustrations.
Three hundred years of Irish watercolours and drawings . Patricia Butler; foreword by Richard Keaveney, 224 pp., 235 illustrations (colour and monochrome).
Fuchsias . Gerda Manthey. Translated by David Christie. Technical. editor Leo Boullemier. viii +196 pp., many colour photographs, line drawings, maps.
Baumrinden . Hugues Vaucher. 255 pp., 530 colour photographs.
The Flowers of Central Australia . Alec M. Blombery. 64 pp., colour photographs.
Wildflowers & Plants of Central Australia . Anne Urban. 240 pp., colour photographs.
A Reunion of Trees. The discovery of exotic plants and their introduction into North American and European landscapes .
Stephen A. Sponberg. xiv + 270 pp., 24 colour plates, 200 black-and-white figures, frontispiece.
Orchids from the Botanical Register 1815–1847 . Edited by Samuel Sprunger in collaboration with Phillip J. W. Cribb and William T. Steam. Vol. 1 - The Illustrations, 322 pp., 440 colour illustrations; Vol. 2 - The texts, 326 pp.
Hardy Herbaceous Perennials . Leo Jellito and Wilhelm Schacht. Third edn. revised by Schacht and Fessier. 2 volumes, 721 pp., 690 colour and 352 black-and-white photographs.
Garden Flowers from Seed . Christopher Lloyd and Graham Rice. 276 pp., 59 colour plates.
Gentians . Fritz Köhlein, ed. by Jim Jermyn. 183 pp., 12 plates of colour photographs, line drawings.     

Reviews of Publications

Book reviewed in this article:
Flowers of the Himalaya , by Oleg Polunin and Adam Stainton.
A Guide to the Vegetation of Britain and Europe , by Oleg Polunin and Martin Walters.
The Experimental Biology of Bryophytes, edited by A. F. Dyer & J. G. Duckett.
A Birdwatcher's Miscellany, edited by Rob Hume.
The Moths and Butterjlies of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 10, Noctuidae (Part II) and Agaristidae, edited by J. Heath.
Atlas of Butterjlies in Britain and Ireland, by J. Heath, E. Pollard & J. A. Thomas.
Colour Identification Guide to Butterjlies of the British Isles, revised edition by T. G. Howarth.
The World of Butterjlies, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia, by V. Sbordoni & S.Forestiero.
Colour Identijcation Guide to Moths of the British Isles, by Bernard Skinner.
The Biology of Buttegies, edited by R. I. Vane-Wright & P. R. Ackery.
Australian Grasses, by Nancy T. Burbidge, revised by Surrey W. L. Jacobs.
Collins Guide to Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns, by R. Fitter & A. Fitter. Collins.
Grasses of the Soviet Union, by N. N. Tsvelev, edited by A. A. Fedorov.
The European Garden Flora, Volume 2, Monocotyledons (Part ZZ), edited by S. M Walters et al.
Grasses, 3rd edition, by C. E. Hubbard, revised by J. C. E. Hubbard.     

REVIEWS

Practical Lawn Craft. By R. B. D awson . Foreword by R. G. S tapledon .
An Introduction to Industrial Mycology. By G. S mith .
Cattle Fodder and Human Nutrition: with special reference to Biological Nitrogen Fixation. By A rtturi I. V irtanen .
Coffee in Kenya. By the Staff of the Scott Agricultural Laboratories and the Agricultural Economist, Department of Agriculture, Kenya, with a contribution by the Director of the British East African Meteorological Service. Edited by J. M c D onald .
Third Conference on Cotton Growing Problems: Report and Summary of Proceedings. Pp.
Plant Injection for Diagnostic and Curative Purposes. By W. A. R oach .
Plant Physiology. By E. C. M iller .
Principles of Genetics. By E. W. S innott and L. C. D unn .
The Genetics of Garden Plants. By M. B. C rane and W. J. C. L awrence .
The Cultivation of Succulents , By H. J acobsen . Authorised translation by V era H iggins .
Research and Statistical Methodology: Books and Reviews , 1933-8. Edited by O. K. B uros .
Methods and Material for Teaching Biological Sciences. By D. F. M iller and G. W. B laydes .     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
An Introduction to Plant Biochemistry . By C atherine C assels S teele .
1. Virus Diseases of Plants: A Bibliography . By D. A tanasoff .
2. Partial Bibliography of Virus Diseases of Plants . By J. I. O tero and M. T. C ook .
Investigations on Barley . By Sir E. J. R ussell and L. R. B ishop .
The Gramineae, a Study of Cereal, Bamboo, and Grass . By A gnes A rber .
A History of Embryology . By J oseph N eedham .
Report on Fungus, Bacterial and other Diseases of Crops in England and Wales , 1928–32.
The Life Forms of Plants and Statistical Plant Geography, being the collected papers of C. Raunkiaer .
Plant Chimaeras and Graft Hybrids . By W. N eilson J ones . (Methuen's Monographs on Biological Subjects.)
The Genetics of Garden Plants . By M. B. C rane and W. J. C. L awrence .     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The Woody Iridaceae. Peter Goldblatt
Plants and their Names. A concise Dictionary. Roger Hyam & Richard Pankhurst
Orchids, Plants of Extremes, Contrasts and Superlatives. Karlheinz Senghas. 182 pp., over 540 photographs almost all in colour.
Lycaste Species. The Essential Guide. Henry F. Oakeley
Field guide to the Palms of the Americas. Andrew Henderson, Gloria Galeano & Rodrigo Bernal
Encyclopaedia of Alpines. Edited by Kenneth Beckett. Two vols., A—K; L—Z
The English Garden: Meditation and Memorial. David R. Coffin
The Flora of Madeira. Edited by J.R. Press & M.J. Short, assisted by N.J. Turland     

SHORT REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Poplars of the British Isles. Theresa Brendell. 24 pp., 29 colour and black-and-white illustrations
A Field Guide to the Crops of Britain and Europe. G. M. de Rougemont
A Garden for all Seasons. Text by Jay Pridmore. 140 pp., many colour photographs. Chicago Horticultural Society
Gardens of England. Frances Gapper, Patience Gapper and Sally Drury. 638 pp., 10 maps. A. & C. Black, London (ISBN 0–7136-3389-1) and W. W. Norton     

A shift toward early reproduction in an introduced herbivorous ladybird

1. In May 1971, fifteen male and thirty female overwintering adults of a thistle-feeding ladybird Epilachna niponica were taken from the Asiu Experimental Forest of Kyoto University and introduced into the Botanical Garden of Kyoto University, 30 km south of Asiu and 10 km south of the southern limits of its distribution. The introduced population established successfully and thereafter maintained densities sufficiently high to defoliate their host plants.
2. Reproductive parameters (reproductive lifespan of females, overall fecundity, and oviposition schedules) of the introduced population were compared with those of the source population 10 years after the introduction. Comparisons were made in the laboratory under five temperature regimes.
3. The lifespan of females differed significantly with temperature, decreasing linearly with increasing temperature. Temperature also had a significant effect on overall fecundity for both populations; overall fecundity at 15 and 30 °C was significantly lower than that at the 20–25 °C regimes.
4. The oviposition activity of the introduced population was significantly higher than that of the source population at 23 and 25 °C. The lifespan of females of the introduced population was also significantly shorter than those of the source population at 20 and 25 °C.
5. The reduced lifespan and higher oviposition activity of introduced females indicate that they directed greater reproductive efforts early in their reproductive lifetime than those of the source population.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Winter Garden Glory. Adrian Bloom
Gardening with Perennials Month by Month. Joseph Hudek
Flora Europaea. Volume 1, second edition, Psilotaceae to Platanaceae. Edited by T. G. Tutin, N. A. Burgess, A. O. Chater, J. R. Edmondson, V. H. Heywood, D. M. Moore, D. H. Valentine, S. M. Walters and D. A. Webb, assisted by J. R. Akeroyd and M. E. Newton
Bark. The Formation, Characteristics and Usefulness of Bark around the World. Ghillean Tolmie Prance and Anne E. Prance     

Herbivory is related to taxonomic isolation, but not to invasiveness of tropical alien plants

Aim  The enemy release hypothesis is often invoked to explain why some alien plant species become invasive. Here, we investigated relationships between invasiveness, taxonomic isolation and leaf herbivory for tropical alien plant species introduced to a botanical garden in East Africa.
Location  Amani Botanical Garden, East Usambara mountains, northeast Tanzania.
Methods  We measured the proportion of leaves damaged, and the percentage leaf area damaged on individuals of 28 alien plant species. We extracted data on the presence/absence of native congeners and the number of native confamilial species from an inventory of the East Usambara flora. We also obtained data on planting effort for 26 species, from historical records. Linear and generalized linear models were used to analyse the relationships between invasiveness, herbivory and taxonomic isolation.
Results  Mean proportion of leaves damaged per species was significantly explained by taxonomic isolation; proportion of leaves damaged increased with the number of native confamilial species and was greater, on average, for species with native congeners than those without native congeners. The mean percentage of leaf area damaged per species could not be explained by any variables considered in this study. There was no relationship between the degree of herbivory or taxonomic isolation and alien plant species invasiveness, but more-invasive species did have a significantly greater planting effort than less-invasive species.
Conclusions  The role herbivores play in controlling alien plant invasions has been investigated relatively little in the tropics. In this study, although the amount of herbivory suffered by alien plants was related to taxonomic isolation, we found no evidence for leaf-feeding invertebrates having a significant role in invasion, suggesting that other factors may be responsible for differences in species success.     

Reducing predation of orb-web spiders by controlling common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) in a New Zealand beech forest

1. Introduced common wasps ( Vespula vulgaris ) reach high densities in the beech forests ( Nothofagus spp.) of the northern South Island, New Zealand, and may be having a severe impact on populations of native invertebrates. An experimental approach was used to test whether reducing the abundance of common wasps increases the probability of native invertebrates surviving. Garden orb-web spiders ( Eriophora pustulosa ) were used because they were easy to collect and could be trained to build webs on a standard frame. Thirty orb-web spiders were placed out on web-frames in each of four study sites in beech forest during periods of low, medium and high wasp abundance, and their rate of removal was measured over a 4-h period. Wasp numbers were reduced by poisoning in two study sites. Using wasp-abundance data from weekly Malaise trap samples in the poisoned and non-poisoned sites, the probability of spider survival over the entire wasp season was modelled and the level of wasp control necessary to protect natural populations of orb-web spiders was estimated.
2. Wasp abundance and the probability of spider survival were negatively correlated, and smaller spiders were likely to survive longer than larger spiders. At the peak of the wasp season, significantly more spiders survived in the poisoned areas than in the non-poisoned areas.
3. The probability of a spider surviving to the end of the wasp season was virtually nil in the non-poisoned sites (5.08 × 10^–18), but was also very unlikely in the poisoned areas (3.47 × 10^–5).
4. The survival model predicts that wasp abundance would need to be reduced by 80–89.5% over the entire wasp season to protect populations of orb-web spiders.
5. Extrapolation from the model predicts that the invertebrate taxa most vulnerable to wasp predation may have already been removed from the beech forest ecosystem during the 40 years of wasp occupation.     

崂山茶区茶树根围AM真菌多样性

为调查崂山茶区土壤中丛枝菌根(AM)真菌资源的分布状况, 于2007年9月从青岛崂山茶区12个茶园采集茶树(Camellia sinensis)根围土样, 采用湿筛倾注–蔗糖离心法分离AM真菌, 测定其物种丰度、频度、孢子密度、相对多度、重要值、多样性指数等。共分离到AM真菌3属22种, 无梗囊霉属(Acaulospora)出现的频度最高, 其次是球囊霉属(Glomus)。AM真菌孢子密度以晓望村茶园最高, 高家村茶园最低; 种丰度以常家村茶园最高; 常家村茶园和万来客茶园的Shannon-Wiener指数显著高于其他茶园。光壁无梗囊霉(Acaulospora laevis)是北崂茶厂、万里江茶园、樱山春茶园、万里江有机茶园、常家村茶园和桑园村茶园的优势种; 波状无梗囊霉(Acaulospora undulata)为万里江有机茶园和万来客茶园的优势种; 隐球囊霉(Glomus occultum)为樱山春茶园、晓望村茶园和万来客茶园的优势种。应用典型相关分析(CCA)对环境因子与崂山茶区AM真菌群落组成的关系进行了分析, 各因子的影响大小依次为: 土壤速效磷含量＞土壤有机质含量＞种植年限＞土壤碱解氮含量＞土壤pH值＞土壤速效钾含量。