238 The Ottawa Naturalist. [January 



REVIEWS. 



Sylvan Ontario. A Guide to our Native Trees and Shrubs. 

 By W. H. Muldrew. William Briggs. Toronto. 1901. 

 Illustrated with 131 Leaf-drawings. 



When Prof. Muldrew established in the grounds of the 

 Gravenhurst High School an Arboretum in which he has now 

 growing practically all the trees and shrubs of the Muskoka dis- 

 trict he not only hit upon the best method of interesting his pupils 

 in botany and especially the care and culture of trees, but he did a 

 service to the town itself which might be imitated by other head- 

 masters of public and high schools all over Canada. But when 

 he went a step further and originated and elaborated his system of 

 identifying trees and shrubs by their leaves alone he made it easy 

 for any intelligent person, whether a botanist or not, to know 

 them after a few minutes' study. 



His plan is sirriplicity itself. After first describing the dif- 

 ferent kinds of leaves, their arrangement on the stem, their mar- 

 gins, shape, venation, etc., and figuring 131 forms of leaves, he 

 separates the Ontario trees and shrubs into groups by their leaves 

 and all the knowledge required to use the " Index based on the 

 leaves '' may be acquired by a careful reading of the six pages 

 which precede it. But should there be any uncertainty in deter- 

 mining a difficult species the index is followed by a catalogue of 

 all the species referred to in the index and where it has been 

 thought necessary a few words of further description are added, 

 together with the habitat and distribution of the species. Students 

 of botany and everyone who wishes to know cut shrubs and trees 

 should possess a copy of Sylvan Ontario. 



Manual of the Flora of the Northern States and Canada. 



By Nathaniel Lord Britton. New York. Henry Holt & 



Co., 1901. 

 This long expected manual, based on Britton & Br ^wn's Illus^ 

 trated Flora of the Northern States and Canada has just been 

 published, and will be reviewed in an early number of The 

 Naturalist. .^-^XTX'>>^ 



