THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 95 



most pronounced — an individuality that makes them recog-- 

 nized even at considerable distances, while the number of dif- 

 ferent species is so small that the non-botanist may hope to 

 learn to recognize them all. There may be some excuse for 

 the adult human being who cannot name all the wildflowers, 

 but there should be none at all for one unable to name the trees 

 of his vicinity. And the chance for an excuse is yearly grow- 

 ing smaller because of the number of books on trees, from all 

 sides of the subject that are steadily appearing. Two new 

 tree manuals have recently come from New England both ex- 

 cellent in their way and each adapted to a different season. 

 "New England Trees in Winter" is issued by the Storrs Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station of Connecticut and is the work 

 of Professor A. F. Blakeslee and C. D. Jarvis. The authors 

 contend that the tree in winter is far from being* the charac- 

 terless object it is assumed to be by the uninitiated and in the 

 250 pages of the bulletin fairly establish their claim. There 

 is a full page illustration for each species showing photogra- 

 phic reproductions of the bark, twigs, fruit and seeds as well 

 as an illustration of the tree as a whole in the winter condi- 

 tion. The illustrations alone ought to be ordinarily sufficient 

 to identify the specimen but in addition, a page of text care- 

 fully gives further descriptive points under the heads of habit, 

 bark, twigs, leaves or leaf scars, buds, fruit and wood. The 

 distribution in the United States, in New England and in 

 Connecticut is given and each species is compared with those 

 that in any way resemble it. One hundred and eleven tree^i 

 are thus described. In addition there is a very good key by 

 which a given species may be traced. Such a book is bound to 

 add zest to the rambler's winter outings, and is expected to be 

 of much value in supplying teachers with material for nature 

 study at a season when it is most difficult to obtain. The book 

 is designed primarily for Connecticut teachers, but probably 

 copies may be obtained by others interested. The second 



