BOOK REVIEWS

extstmg structural organization can be his correspondents were Sir inherited during their vegetative growth I Early blooming and Sir , and a fascinating and division, and is not under genetic chapter deals with his transatlantic control. This is one of the very few Ghi/lean T. Prance correspondence, particularly with plant examples of inheritance not involving an collector John Bartram. Another chapter alteration in DNA. The classic example is The Chelsea Gardener. is about Miller's most valued flowering the inheritance of ciliary rows that have 1691-1771. By Hazel le Rougetel. shrub, the rose. The Provence appears to been inverted by 180°. But it is not just Natural History Museum Publications, have been Miller's favourite among the inversion of ciliary rows that can be : 1990. Pp. 212.£14.95, $29.95. many species and varieties of roses that he inherited. Large-scale reversals of asym­ cultivated at Chelsea. Miller did not con­ metry are possible so that there is a change "MILLER'S Gardeners' Dictionary is the fine his horticulture to the garden directly in intracellular handedness that affects the most important horticultural work of under his care in Chelsea but advised and arrangement of all the cortical structures the eighteenth century" says Professor exchanged material with many of the great within its domain. William T. Stearn, who contributed the estates of England, such as the garden of Ciliates show a remarkable capacity for final chapter to this book. This is certainly the third Duke of Argyll at Whitton which regeneration and pattern regulation. It is true; indeed, Philip Miller was also the accumulated a large collection of trees. as if the cell is behaving like a classical leading British gardener of his century. As On the death of the duke in 1761, many of embryonic gradient field. Frankel has the keeper of the Apothecaries' Physic the beautiful trees at Whitton were trans­ proposed a formal model, based on posi­ Garden at Chelsea from 1722 to 1770, he ferred by Lord Bute to Princess Augusta's tional information, which attempts to built up the most richly stocked garden in garden at Kew, the precursor of the Royal account for a large number of results. Europe. Miller was both botanist and Botanic Gardens. Fortunately, Miller's Treating the ciliate as a cylinder, it is horticulturalist and his dictionary is the work at Chelsea has been continued by sub- assumed that there are both longitudinal and circumferential positional values giv­ ing, in effect, a two-dimensional coordin­ ate system, which makes the different parts of the cortical system non­ equivalent. One property of the system is its tendency to achieve a continuum of normally spaced positional values, and in this it is similar to the polar coordinate model that has been so successful in accounting for the regeneration of multi­ cellular systems. A key feature of the model is that positional values are 'inter­ preted' by the development of specific structures. Both positional value and interpretation are, however, completely without a molecular basis. But as Frankel makes clear, the model provides a partial explanation for a large amount of inform­ ation which would otherwise be incompre­ hensible. Moreover, there are few errors of commission, that is, a structure forming where it is not expected. This brief review does little justice to Meerburg, the house and garden of M. de Ia Court. Philip Miller visited this garden, at the richness of the material, the clarity of Oud-Poelgeest, Holland, in 1727, and was instructed by its gardener on the cultivation of the exposition, or how well Frankel pineapples. (From The Chelsea Gardener.) o relates ciliate patterning to that in multi­ source of the original descriptions and sequent generations and the Physic Garden cellular organisms. He has written an out­ names of many species of plants. is still a testimony to its greatest keeper. standing book. One can only hope it will Miller was a contemporary of Linnaeus This book will make any visitor's trip to encourage others to enter the field. The and, in the eighth and last edition of his today's garden even more interesting. difficulties in solving the problem are great work, he adopted the Linnaean sys­ The book is abundantly illustrated with great, but so are the rewards. One cannot tem of nomenclature which he had earlier 16 colour plates and numerous black­ but believe that underlying patterning in resisted. He was a great correspondent and-white drawings carefully selected the single cell is a fundamental biological and maintained contact with botanists and from Miller's Gardeners' Dictionary and mechanism that has been taken over by plant collectors from all around the world. Figures of Plants and engravings of multicellular organisms. D As a result, he obtained for the Physic Chelsea. It is attractive and well laid out, Garden many species from Europe, North and will be of interest both to botanists Lewis Wolpert is Professor of Anatomy, Univer• America, South Africa and the West and to horticulturalists who are interested sity College and Middlesex School of Medicine, Indies which were not seen by Linnaeus. in the history of their discipline. D Cleveland Street, London W1P 6DP, UK. Miller named these both from living material and from herbarium specimens, Ghillean T. Prance is Director of the Royal • Two new books from Cambridge University so his dictionary is a work of major impor­ Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey Press also address early development. This tance to taxonomic botany. Many familiar TVV9 3AB, UK. Side Up by Robert Wall, describes spatial garden plants still bear the name of Miller determination in the early development of after their Latin binomials. animals. Price £70, $110. Morphogenesis by • The Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Jonathan Bard, is about the cellular and This delightful new book about Miller Hospital Road, London SW3 4HB, UK, is open molecular processes of developmental ana• covers many aspects of his life and his to the public on Wednesdays and Sundays tomy. Price £35, $54.50. D influence on the world of botany. Among from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. D 712 NATURE VOL 346 · 23 AUGUST 1990 © 1990 Nature Publishing Group