320 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Forest Products, their Manufacture and Use. By Nelson Courtlandt 

 Brown, B.A., M.F., Professor of Forest Utilisation, The New York 

 State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York ; 

 Trade Commissioner, United States Lumber Trade Commission to 

 Europe, Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. [Pp. xix + 471 .] 

 (New York : John Wiley & Sons ; London : Chapman & Hall, 1919- 

 Price 2 IS. net.) 

 This book gives an introductory account of the principles and practice under- 

 lying a number of industries dependent on the use of timber and other products 

 of forest trees. As it was found necessary to limit the scope of the work, 

 certain industries, such as furniture, shipbuilding, and allied industries, are 

 omitted, as they belong to a distinctly different category from those con- 

 sidered. These latter are as follows : wood pulp and paper, tanning materials, 

 veneers, cooperage, and naval stores, the distillation of hardwood and 

 softwood, charcoal, such industries as pole and post and shingle making, 

 maple syrup and sugar, rubber, dye woods, cork, etc. 



Although this work deals chiefly with industries in America, where, in spite 

 of much depletion, the forests available for timber are still very large, and 

 where the consumption of timber per head of the population is about fourteen 

 times as much as that consumed per head in this country, yet the book will 

 be read with appreciation by all in this country interested in forestry and 

 economic botany, and the application of science to industry. It is clear that 

 the forests of the world in general, and of this country in particular, are 

 rapidly diminishing, while more and more industries are dependent upon them. 

 That the time cannot be far distant when the importance of forest production 

 will force itself into recognition becomes clear from the large number of 

 industries, described by Prof. Brown, which are dependent on the main- 

 tenance of forests. 



In spite of its somewhat encyclopaedic character, the book retains its in- 

 terest from the beginning to the end. W. S. 



The Nature Study of Plants in Theory and Practice for the Hobby-Botanist. 



By Thomas Alfred Dymes, F.L.S., with an Introduction by Prof. 



F. E. Weiss, F.R.S. [Pp. xviii-f 173, with frontispiece and 53 



illustrations (21 photographs).] (London: Society for Promoting 



Christian Knowledge, 1920. Price 6s. net.) 

 This is an admirable little book, written, as the title-page informs us, for 

 the hobby-botanist, and probably also for teachers of nature study, and 

 children. In the first portion of the book the general facts of Nature Study 

 are reviewed ; in the second, special part, a much more detailed account is 

 given of the Ufe-history of the Herb Robert, of which the author has made 

 an intensive study. This is followed by a description of the relatives of 

 this plant and by a comparison with the Storksbill. As Prof. Weiss says, in 

 his introduction, such a detailed study will no doubt prove to many " an 

 incentive to make a personal investigation of the fascinating processes 

 which make for the preservation of the individual and the race." Our know- 

 ledge of such facts in regard to even the commoner British plants is all too 

 meagre ; the illustrations are almost invariably good, and the style clear 

 and simple. E. M. C. 



Cocoa and Chocolate : their History from Plantation to Consumer. By 

 A. W. Knapp, B.Sc, F.I.C. [Pp. xii -f 210, with numerous illustra- 

 tions.] (London : Chapman & Hall, 1920. Price 12s. 6d. net.) 

 This is an attempt to cover, with accuracy, but not with completeness, the 

 whole ground of this important subject, Cocoa, from tlie preparation of 



