BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 263 



at the top of page 48, after saying that the lower branches soon die 

 from lack of light, he adds, "and the next high wind or ice storm breaks 

 them off, leaving the lower part of the trunk bare of branches." If 

 this were the case, it would be comparatively simple to grow trees which 

 would yield clear lumber in a reasonable length of time. But dead 

 limbs persist so long after death that only in very old trees do we find 

 clear lumber. However, the book appears to be unusually free from 

 mistakes of this character. 



Whoever has enjoyed Bruncken's admirable statement of the general 

 principles of forestry^ will be glad to have Professor Moon's book as a 

 source of facts hitherto so scattered through government publications 

 and periodic literature as to be inaccessible to the general public. The 

 narrative form and amusing anecdotes will increase the size of the 

 audience and the usefulness of the book. — Barrington Moore. 



Megasporophylls of Conifers. — A much needed comparative 

 study of the vascular supply of cone-scales in all groups of conifers 

 has been made by Miss Aase,'^ who finds that two processes have been 

 at work in the evolution of the ovulate strobilus: (1) reduction in 

 number of sporophylls in the strobilus, and (2) fusion of bract and 

 ovuliferous scale, with or without a corresponding fusion of their 

 vascular supplies. The diagrams accompanying this paper must be 

 taken into account in any future discussion of the morphology of the 

 cone. — M. A. Chrysler. 



1 Bruncken, Ernest. North American Forests and Forestry. Pp. 262. New 

 York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908. 



2 Aase, H. C. Vascular Anatomy of the Megasporophylls of Conifers. Bot. 

 Gaz. 60: 277-313. 1915. 



