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reograph their life. Plants are moving all the time "without the nerves, muscles, bones, ligaments, and tendons on which animals depend. All a plant needs is control over patterns of growth and the movement of water, salt, and sometimes the assistance of microscopic fibers of proteins" (p. 112). Bending toward light, growing right-side up, sleeping and waking movements, and even the dramatic capture of insects are described in detail showing how plants control their growth and their behavior. Plants, as rooted organisms, must have ingenious ways of "coping with stress" (this stress does not refer to emotional tension). Dehydration, overheating, plant-eating animals, disease-producing viruses, bacteria and fungi, freezing, shading, floods, trampling, and habitat disruption all pressure plant survival. While people focus on developing medical solutions to combat threats to human health, plants are replete with their own devices, yet to be discovered by humans, for rebounding, thriving, and reproducing. Flexibility of life-style, not only in sexual matters but in cell fate, gives plants the ability to regenerate when wounded and to overcome dire circumstances that would eliminate most animals. The rapidly emerging field of plant interactions with microbesbacteria and fungi in particular-is revealing ancient ways that plants have evolved along with other organisms, sharing DNA and enzymatic functions to make the best of their environment. These findings and the growing understanding of plant biology as outlined in this text are brought together in a discussion of "improving the green machine." While this discussion clearly has agronomic implications and ethical 56 considerations, our knowledge is also likely to allow us to understand better how plants are responding to the drastic environmental changes we are bringing about today. Plants are curious, lively organisms not yet well understood. Readers of all levels are likely to benefit from Galston's knowledge. The book, particularly the introductory sections, could be used as an educational text by elementary teachers and other guides of children. Any part of the book could be used as a lesson for botany or horticulture classes of any age. As a whole the book is a terrific alternative to standard biology and plant physiology texts for high school and college classes. The layout of the chapters, the figures, and especially the photographs draw the reader into the text. Because it is so comprehensive, the book would augment any advanced or graduate-level physiology or biochemistry class and should be used for perspective of the field. For the rest of us-interested lay readers, political decision makers, and specialized professionals alikethe story is truly enjoyable and compelling. Plants have long attracted insightful experimenters and vibrant teachers. Galston, a master teacher himself, dedicated his book to three who came before him, who lured him from the study of veterinary medicine and propelled him along his fruitful path. His enthusiasm and joy of discovery is characteristic of teachers of plant physiology, and his book is likely to interest many who had not noticed before that plants are actually doing much. ELIZABETH V AN VOLKENBURGH Department of Botany, KB-15 University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 A HISTORY OF MAMMALOGY Seventy-Five Years of Mammalogy (1919-1994). Elmer C. Birney and Jerry R. Choate, eds. Special Publication No. 1. The American Society of Mammalogists, Provo, UT, 1994. 433 pp., illus. $50.00 (ISBN 0935868-73-9 cloth). In 1919, C. Hart Merriam became the first president of the newly created American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), and in spirit he still returns to the annual meetings, if one can judge from a message that regularly appears on the bulletin board: C. Hart Merriam-Please call your office. However, the society and the discipline of mammalogy have changed greatly in the intervening years, as this book effectively demonstrates. Its contents are likely to interest diverse biologists, in addition to mammalogists. Seventy-Five Years of Mammalogy (1919-1994) is divided into two parts. Part I outlines the history of ASM, while the second describes the intellectual development of the science of mammalogy. Donald F. Hoffmeister and Keir B. Sterling lead off with a discussion of the history of scientific societies, museums, and the roles played by individuals of the US Bureau of Biological Survey (a bureau of the US Department of Agriculture from 1906 to 1940);n founding ASM. The next three chapters consist of 120 short biographical sketches of persons who have played prominent roles in ASM and in mammalogy during this century. "Academic propinquity," a chapter by John O. Whitaker Jr., presents an intellectual genealogy of mammalogists, demonstrating the special roles played by the Biological Survey, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Kansas, Harvard University, and Cornell University. Read in combination with the biographical sketches, it provides a sense of the dynamic interplay between personalities, institutions, and disciplines in the development of mammalogy. Three more chapters are devoted specifically to ASM and its publications, committees, membership, and finances. Items of general interest BioScience Vol. 46 No.1 include the increase in multiauthored papers, the increase in number of references cited, the changes in disciplines represented in the Journal of Mammalogy, the continuing existence since 1927 of the ASM committee on the conservation of land mammals, and the increasing internationalism of the society. Part II is comprised of 13 chapters outlining the changes that have occurred in a diversity of disciplines. Many chapters take a broad international view of a discipline and its development, starting well before the establishment of ASM. In "Taxonomy," Mark D. Engstrom, Jerry R. Choate, and Hugh H. Genoways present the interplay between the increasing number of specimens available for study and the changing concepts of species and subspecies. The large collections made by the Biological Survey under Merriam led to the early recognition of geographic variation and intergradation between populations of small mammals. In turn, the Modern Synthesis of evolution had a major effect on the study of mammalian systematics by providing a broader species concept. A chapter by Richard J. Zakrzewski and Jason A. Lillegraven emphasizes the difference between the two approaches to paleomammalogy-the geological approach with its use of mammalian fossils for study of stratigraphy and the biological approach with its use of mammalian fossils for the study of evolution. Precise chemical techniques for dating rocks now permit the blending of these two approaches and testing of theories of synchrony and asynchrony of fossiliferous strata. In "Biogeography," Sydney Anderson and Bruce D. Patterson discuss the distributions of species and biotas in ecological and geological time and the dramatic conceptual changes that occurred during the twentieth century. These chapters are complemented by two later ones. "Molecular Systematics," by Rodney L. Honeycutt and Terry L. Yates, emphasizes the important roles of protein electrophoresis, immunology, amino acid sequences, and nucleotide sequences in systematics. The molecular clock concept is also briefly discussed. "Cytogenetics," by Robert J. Baker and Mark S. January 1996 Hafner, covers the history of the study of chromosomes. In a fascinating if humbling section, the authors describe the many false assumptions of cytogeneticists in the 1960s. The number of cytogenetics papers in the Journal of Mammalogy burgeoned in the 1960s and 1970s, peaked in the 1980s, and has declined since, but Baker and Hafner predict that new techniques will reinvigorate the field. In the chapter "Anatomy," Carleton J. Phillips describes the differences in history and perspective of medical anatomy, zoological morphology, and mamma logical anatomy. He argues that mammalogical anatomy has been strong in taxonomic diversity but has been too devoted to the service of systematics, in which anatomical features become mere systematic characters. In "Physiology," Bruce A. Wunder and Gregory L. Florant compare the topics of research covered in major physiology journals with those covered in the Journa{ of Mammalogy. They show the changing emphases, decade by decade, and the greater emphasis in the Journal of Mammalogy on studies of temperature regulation, energetics, water balance, and reproduction. Reproduction is discussed by O. P. Pearson and G. J. Kenagy. They provide an interesting historical sweep, starting with the Cambridge and Johns Hopkins legacies and offer a broad perspective on the study of mammalian reproduction. Ecology is considered in three chapters. William Z. Lidicker Jr. provides a masterful review of the conceptual development of population ecology during this century and the roles played by mammalogists. Michael A. Mares and Guy N. Cameron review the history of community and ecosystems ecology, from Merriam's life-zone concept through development of the niche concept and the study of competition and predation to the influence of the International Biological Program. James H. Bowen and Don E. Wilson discuss how the early discovery phase of nineteenth-century exploration led to natural history studies and then to evolutionary ecology. They further describe the interplay between natural history data, the theo- ries developed in the Modern Synthesis and later by G. Evelyn Hutchinson and Robert H. MacArthur, and the development of experimental techniques and hypothesis testing. In a related chapter,John F. Eisenberg and Jerry O. Wolff present a lucid, fascinating account of the history of behavioral research during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They trace it from natural history accounts through the study of sociobiology. They describe the many factors, from world wars to choices of faculty, that have influenced the discipline, and the influence, in turn, of behavioral research on other disciplines. Appropriately, the final chapter by James H. Shaw and David J. Schmidly treats the subject of mammalian conservation and management, reminding us of the near extinction of bison and the history of predatory control. They summarize the changing attitudes and approaches to conservation, which have led up to the current burgeoning interest in conservation biology. If he were to return, Merriam would learn much from this volume about the conceptual changes in the science of mammalogy, but he would probably be surprised at the lack of emphasis on the ways in which technology has changed the study of mammals. Some major changes have resulted from low-technology capture techniques, such as the use of mist nets to capture bats (initiated in the 1950s), the use of pit traps to capture shrews, and the development of live traps. At the other extreme, technological changes in transportation and communication are having major effects on the internationalization of mammalogy. It would have been valuable to have more extensive discussion of the influences of technological change on the different disciplines. Within the charge given to the authors to describe the intellectual development of their disciplines, however, Merriam would be well served, as would a broad group of today's biologists, who might not pick up the book given its title. RICHARD W. THORINGTON JR. Division of Mammals Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20560 57