300 BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



organizing a forest for business." The book is intended for professional 

 foresters and students of forestry; it is too technical for the layman 

 who merely desires a general view of the subject. As a text book it 

 has already gained wide popularity in forest schools. 



As stated in the preface to the first edition, the author makes no 

 claim for presenting original theories, but aims merely to present the 

 best of European ideas adapted to the needs of American forestry. 

 European text books, while serving as a foundation for American 

 forestry, have often failed to meet the needs of the student and practi- 

 tioner in this country, because European conditions are very different 

 from those met here. The endeavor of the author has therefore been to 

 present the most fundamental principles and to show how they may be 

 applied under American conditions. Numerous references to American 

 forest problems bring the ideas home to the American reader in a way 

 which the. older European literature can not do. — G. A. Pearson. 



The Node of Angiosperms. — The first member of a series of papers 

 by Sinnott and Bailey on the phylogeny of the angiosperms proposes 

 a principle^ which may prove to be of broad application in classification. 

 Study of a large number of angiosperms shows that while the petiole is 

 too much influenced by ecological factors to furnish facts of phylo- 

 genetic significance, the basal region of the leaf shows a simpler and 

 more constant condition, and in it the number of leaf -traces is char- 

 acteristic of the great groups. It is concluded that among angio- 

 sperms the primitive number of traces is three (as in Amentiferae), 

 and that evolution has taken place in two directions: (1) by increase 

 in the number of leaf-traces, as in Umbelliflorae, (2) by reduction to 

 one trace as a consequence of fusion of the original three (Cruciferae) , 

 or of disappearance of the two lateral strands (Aquifoliaceae). In 

 another paper of the series^ the theory is extended to account for the 

 position and distribution of stipules. In the third paper of the series^ 

 the origin of herbaceous angiosperms from woody forms is discussed 

 at length, from the standpoints of paleobotany, anatomy, phylogeny 

 and phytogeography. It will be seen that the good old story of transi- 

 tion from herbaceous to woody stem structure has received some hard 

 blows of late years. — M. A. Chrysler. 



1 Sinnott, E. W. The Anatomy of the Node as an Aid in the Classification of 

 Angiosperms. Amer Jour. Bot. 1: .303-322. 1914. 



2 Sinnott, E. W. and Bailey, I. W., Nodal Anatomy and the Morphology of 

 Stipules. Amer. Jour. Bot. 1: 411-453. 1914. 



'Sinnott, E. W. and Bailey, I. W. The Origin and Dispersal of Herbaceous^ 

 Angiosperms. Ann. Bot. 28: 547-600, pis. .39, 40. 1914. 



