TIMBER AND ITS DISEASES. 879 



too much to say that this is the best book on economic plants that 

 has ever appeared in our colonies, and one that will be of great use 

 to us at home. 



In a work of such general excellence it seems ungracious to find 

 fault, but the author will no doubt pardon our drawing his attention 

 to a mistake on p. 59, where he gives Mammea americana as a 

 synonym of Barringtonia speciosa, spelling it at the same time 

 Mammu. Evidently Mammea asiatica L. is intended. 



J. R. J. 



Timber, and some of its Diseases. By H. Marshall Ward, M.A., 



F.R.S., &c. London, Macmillan & Co. 1889. 8vo, pp. 295 : 



45 cuts. Price 6s. 

 Diseases of Plants. By H. Marshall Ward, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 



Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. London, 1889. 



8vo, pp. 196 : 53 cuts. Price 2s. 6d. 



Prof. Ward has written a very attractive book — one of the 

 'Nature' series — on timber and some of its diseases. The subject 

 interests a large class of readers, botanists, foresters, and those who 

 deal in and with timber after it has been felled and turned to 

 account. The book is of handy size, nicely printed, and well 

 illustrated with abundant figures, many of them original, and the 

 others mostly after Hartig. Those who have given attention even 

 of the superficial sort to the subject of forestry, and especially to 

 the diseases of forest trees, all know that to Hartig, immeasurably 

 more than to anyone else, we are indebted for knowledge of it. 

 His brilliant researches are known to botanists from their bearing 

 on the natural history of Fungi, and on such questions as the 

 ascent of water in trees. Prof. Ward is therefore inevitably indebted 

 mostly to Hartig in producing this book, and he nowhere fails to 

 handsomely acknowledge it. But Prof. Ward has done much him- 

 self, and it is everywhere apparent that he is not merely telling us 

 the story of other people's researches, but that he is familiar with 

 the things he speaks of — to put it plainly, if baldly, that he knows 

 what he is talking about at first-hand. 



The first chapter deals with the general characters and structure 

 of timber, and if anyone fails to understand the outlines of these 

 after reading it, it will not be the author's fault. Chapter ii. treats 

 of the properties and varieties of timber, and Chapter iii. of their 

 classification, in the same plain and easy style. The fourth chapter 

 possesses more value to botanists than any other part of the book. 

 It deals with the greatly vexed question of the ascent of water in 

 trees, and since there is hardly a botanist in Britain, or out of it, 

 who has not grown weary of the interminable debate of recent 

 years, and of the turgid accounts of experiments by long-winded 

 (mostly German) authors, it may be hoped that a historical resume 

 of the business in its recent developments will be welcome to all. 

 Prof. Ward has done this — he has read the whole of the literature 

 ("alone he did it," one is tempted to say) and has picked out the 

 point of each paper of importance, and now presents it as an 



