Books and Current Literature. 149 



a very much simpler make-up than has been reported for forests 

 in other parts of the torrid zone. Warming states that in Lagoa 

 Santa it was difficult for him to find two trees of the same species 

 anywhere near each other and reports a total tree flora of 380 

 species; Whitford states that the Lamao Reserve has 548 tree 

 species at the same time that the Dipterocarps are predominant. 

 This means, of course, that the floristic complexity of the forests 

 is given them by the smaller trees between the standard of 4 m. 

 in height and that of 30 cm. in diameter. It is quite probable 

 that many travelers in tropical forests have been given the im- 

 pression of their complexity by this small-sized and more accessi- 

 ble element. Another suggestive feature of the paper is the show- 

 ing that forests in the most favorable situations are "the most 

 successful" and have the simplest make-up. That they are the 

 most successful — which is to say that the component trees are 

 greatest in size and volume — is to be expected, but that they 

 should be simplest in composition quite reverses the long ac- 

 cepted view that it is the ease and favorableness of the environ- 

 mental conditions which has brought about the rich make-up 

 of tropical forests. 



Other papers are promised by Whitford, which will probably, 

 like the present one, combine great interest for the student of 

 vegetation and for the commercial explorer. In spite of the 

 originality and importance of his work, and the fact that he has 

 taken more notice of physiographic and soil conditions than the 

 classic authorities on the tropics did, there is no good reason for 

 allowing his facts regarding a relatively small body of insular 

 forest to compel a re-casting of our conceptions of the great 

 continental bodies of tropical forest. 



Dr. B. E. Femow, Dean of the Faculty of Forestry of the 

 University of Toronto, has produced a manual on "The care of 

 Trees" (H. Holt & Co., §^2) which will be found useful by every 

 one concerned with the care of trees in lawns, streets, and parks. 

 The information given for the diagnosis of diseases and de- 

 fective growth, directions for planting, fertilizing, pruning, 

 as well as for the surgery of damaged trunks and branches 

 and control of parasites, will be gratefully received not only 

 by the amateur with a half-dozen trees under his care, but 

 also by the superintendent of a great city park. Some attention 



