230 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



mechanism being not only individual but racial ; /. e. representing 

 inherited response to conditions possibly no longer effective." 



As would be expected in a work published by the Oxford University 

 Press, the format is excellent ; the only misprint detected is at the 

 bottom of p. 32, where the genus Baphia appears as Maliia. 



W. P. H. 



A Guide to the Id enfiji cation of ovr more useful Timbers, heii/q 

 a Jlanual for the Use of Students of Forestry. By HEiiEKiir 

 Stoxe, Lecturer in Forestry (Wood). Cambridge University 

 Press, 1920, pp. 32, with 3 Plates, wrapper. Price 7s. (jd. net. 



Mr. Stone's purpose is professedly educational, and we fully 

 agree with his opinion that '• there is nothing better than a study of 

 the structure of wood'' as "a training in observation." For his own 

 students, the descri})tions he gives of some forty common woods, and 

 the *• frankly empirical" keys for their discrimination, will un- 

 doubtedly be of the greatest value. The publication of this booklet, 

 however, even at the exorbitant price of 7*. 6d. net — which seems to 

 imply that the parents of university students may be expected to 

 pay anvthing asked for prescribed text-books — implies an appeal to 

 a larger public, and the only suggestion we wdsh to make for some- 

 thing more in a second issue is on behalf of such students who have 

 not the advantage of Mr. Stone's teacliing at Cambridge. We feel 

 inclined to grumble at his list of " our more useful timbers," which 

 does not include Greenheart, Mora, Jarrah, Kauri Pine, or even 

 Canadian Maple and African Mahoganies, when such woods as Box, 

 Evergreen Oak, Bed Gum (Liquidambar), Pear, and Laburnum, 

 whicli cannot accurately be termed timbers, are included. 



Only indirectly does Mr. Stone admit the extreme difficulty of 

 specific discrimination, when, for instance, under " Spruce " he says 

 nothing as to the great likeness between the woods of other species of 

 JPicea and that of P. exceJsa. To read his " Introductory Note," 

 one might imagine that all the structures he describes in the body of 

 the book could be seen with a lens, which is far from being the case. 

 It would be very helpful if in the next edition some description could 

 be given of the preparation of specimens for examination and of such 

 a special form of comi^und microscope as that which the author 

 gave in his Timbers of Commerce. The necessity for a detailed 

 examination of the rays in conifers, which is recognized by the auth.or 

 in his description of Finns syJvestris, makes the scale of magnifica- 

 tion, about 50 diameters, in the plates obviously inadequate. As 

 might be expected from such a mnster of his subject, Mr. Stone's 

 descriptions are admirably full and of indisputable accuracy. 



G. S. BOULGER. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



Mr. L. el. Bailey sends us the first number of Gentes Her- 

 larium — " Occasional' Papers on the Kinds of Plants " — published 

 at Ithaca, New York. This issue is devoted to a collection of plants 

 made by Mr. Bailey in several parts of central China in 1917, in the 

 elaboration of which he has had the help of various botanists. 



