THE PLANT WOKLD 235 



NOTES ON CURRENT 

 LITERATURE 



Captain George P. Ahern, U. S. A., wlio is in charge of the For- 

 estry Bureau at Manilla, has compiled a small work on the important 

 woods of the Philii^pines, containing a number of colored plates taken 

 mainly from Blanco's and Vidal's classical treatises. It appears that 

 there are over 600 species of trees on the islands, yielding besides tim- 

 ber other important economic products, such as gums, rubber, oils, etc. 



No 8 of Mr. C. G. Lloj^d's series of mycological notes has been dis- 

 tributed. It contains interesting and valuable notes on several species 

 of puffballs, especially Geasters, and is illustrated with reproductions 

 of Mr. Lloyd's excellent photographs. It is greatly to be regretted that 

 the usefulness of the author's work is so largely decreased by his pecu- 

 liar ideas of nomenclature. Neither priority nor authority being rec- 

 ognized, confusion rather than clearness frequently follows a study of 

 his notes. 



"Ten Common Trees," by Susan Stokes, of the High School in 

 Salt Lake City, published by the American Book Company, is the lat- 

 est addition to the well-known series of Eclectic School readings. In 

 the form of interesting stories it presents a series of simple nature les- 

 sons dealing with ten of the trees most familiar to children. These les- 

 sons describe the life of the tree and its relations with the soil, moist- 

 ure, winds, and insects. The topics are so arranged that the teacher 

 can readily accompany each lesson with actual nature work. The book 

 is illustrated by carefully made and accurate drawings, and contains a 

 list of articles, in both prose and poetry, referring to the tree-families 

 described, and suitable for reading and recitation. 



Dr. W. J. Beal of the Michigan Agricultural College, has an article 

 in the November number of ScJiool Science entitled " The Study of Bot- 

 any 36 Years Ago with Asa Gray." Dr. Beal is one of the few links 

 connecting the older school of botanists in this country with the pres- 

 ent day. He relates in a very interesting manner his studies under Dr. 

 Gray at Harvard in 1865, and contrasts the condition of the science of 



