Esau's Plant Anatomy, Meristems, Cells, and Tissues of the Plant Body: their Structure, Function, and Development. 3rd edn.

There are few more iconic texts in botany than Esau's Plant Anatomy. For decades, it has served the structural educational needs of many generations of plant biologists. How daunting, then, must be the task of revising this mighty tome? And what a relief that the gauntlet has been taken up by one of plant structure–function's most well-known names – after the great lady herself – Ray Evert. There is a gap of over four decades between the last edition of the Esau book and the present 3rd edition. So much has happened in the intervening years to reveal new ways of looking at plant anatomy – the TEM revolution (which has all but come and gone in the conventional sense), the irresistible rise of molecular biology, and the birth of immunological studies – that the plant structure–function landscape is now dramatically different and a new edition is long overdue. Notwithstanding its updating to the 21st century, ‘Esau 3’ is still very much a ‘traditional’ plant anatomy text. But there is nothing wrong with that: the organization of material follows a well-tried and tested formula (mirrored by countless lecture courses). After Chapter 1 – an overview of the plant body – Chapters 2–17 follow a well-trodden path of building up the plant body: from sub-cellular, to cellular, to tissues. Whilst including the ultrastructural components of cells, it is a book primarily devoted to anatomy revealed at the light-microscope level, although also incorporating recent physiological and molecular studies. In assimilating those latter insights it proves that plant anatomy is not a static subject; it still has much to offer and is extremely relevant in providing context and framework for interpretation of molecular genetic studies; and, in their turn, molecular investigations deepen our appreciation and understanding of plant structure–function. And it is those structure–function aspects that are emphasized here, underlining Evert's view that a ‘thorough knowledge of the structure and development of cells and tissues is essential for a realistic interpretation of plant function…’ (Preface, page xv). Although each chapter has its own list of references (which include many post-2000), an interesting Addendum of ‘pertinent references not cited in the text’ is also supplied. This section alone attests to the tremendous range of references that were read in preparing the work, and emphasizes the breadth of studies that contribute to present-day plant anatomy. The text is good, up-to-date and readable. Each section in a chapter is generally headed by a statement – essentially a summary or main conclusion of the subsequent text – which makes for a series of bullet points that are an ideal basis for a lecture on that chapter's topic. And, as you might expect for such a visual topic, it is profusely illustrated throughout with plenty of images, many of which make use of Evert's extensive repertoire of plant anatomical studies. Although none are in colour, this is not a major disadvantage since much of the anatomy considered is more than adequately illustrated in black-and-white. From an inclusivity point of view, it is all there. Or, rather, what you would expect from a text dealing with ‘Meristems, Cells, and Tissues of the Plant Body’ is all there. What isn't there is arguably the more exciting stuff of plant anatomy – how these structural units are organized into the tremendous variety of roots, shoots, fruits, etc of the plant body. But nowhere could I find mention of a companion volume to deal with these aspects of anatomy. This is an obvious missing component, and one which could benefit from the Evert touch. Surely a Part 2 is intended? If not, why not? As Evert observes, ‘a biologist… cannot afford to lose sight of the whole organism…’ (Preface, page xv). On a pedagogic note – is there any chance that the book's images could also be made available separately? It is very much the thing nowadays that books of pedagogic worth have associated web sites and CD-ROMs of ‘Instructor's Toolkits’, etc, containing the book's artwork, images, and even lecture outlines. Such a visual subject as plant anatomy is eminently worthy of this treatment, and it would be a way of giving access to the full-colour version of text images without increasing the cost of the hard copy. Also timely might be a separate chapter – possibly full-colour, web-only(?) – giving more information on the techniques used to generate plant anatomical information. This need not be long, but would provide an important interpretational context for the studies, and have considerable educational value. The Preface claims that the book has been primarily planned for advanced students, researchers and teachers. It will be certainly be very useful for teachers, but at nearly £90 I doubt that it will be taken up by students as an essential text, even if their lecturers – like this one – are happy to so endorse it. The book also makes two important pleas – we need to ensure that plant anatomy continues to be taught in universities (and is not sacrificed on the altar of modernity, to appease the gods of gel and gene). We also need to extend our knowledge of plant anatomy from those unrepresentative temperate crops to embrace the tremendous diversity of (sub-)tropical species (Preface, page xvi). These remain challenges for future editions, and future generations. This 3rd edition is a very worthy successor to previous editions of ‘Esau’, and will serve the subject well for many years to come. And how appropriate that its revision has been entrusted to the Katherine Esau Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin.