CONIFEROUS TREES FOR PROFIT AND ORNAMENT 103 



It would be difficult for Mr. Webster or anybody else to over- 

 estimate the indebtedness of the arts and manufactures to the 

 ConifercB, but it is assuredly saying a little too much to include 

 petroleum among their products (p. xv) ; per contra, Pinus Pinaster 

 is omitted from the enumeration of turpentine-yielding species on 

 p. xvi, whilst Mr. Webster's knowledge of the commercial position 

 of the j)roducts of the group appears incomplete when he says that 

 '' it is hardly likely that pine nuts will ever find much favour in this 

 country." With reference to our present-day needs, a mis-statement 

 of geological results which suggests '' Ai'aucaria and members of the 

 pine family " as occurring *' in the Devonian and Carboniferous 

 series " (p. xix) is of small moment ; nor, perhaps, is it of much con- 

 sequence that Mr. Webster puts Ginlcgo in the Order Taxacecd ; but 

 his speaking (p. 2) of the "fruit " of that Order, and of the "ovary" 

 of Grymnosperms in general (p. 1), together with his particularising 

 certain species of Pine as having two seeds at the base of each cone- 

 scale, suggests an insufficient knowledge of the anatomy of these 

 plants. The description of the foliage of Taxodium on p. 171 as 

 " pinnate leaves . . . arranged in horizontal rows on each side of the 

 midrib," is another illustration of the same thing. 



It may be doubted whether the author is justified in including the 

 species of Torreya among hardy conifers ; and in some other cases 

 anyone acquainted with the forms in cultivation may be inclined to 

 doubt whether the descriptions, which are obviously taken from 

 actual specimens, are correctl}^ assigned. Arboriculturists who favour 

 Conifers for ornamental planting may find the remarks on the culti- 

 vation of each species, by a man of Mr. Webster's long practical 

 experience, of value ; and there are many interesting notes on par- 

 ticular specimens, such as those of Collinson's planting at Mill Hill, 

 scattered through the book, though more might have been done in 

 this direction. 



The book is well got up ; but it is unfortunate that the name 

 of the genus is not put at the head of each page, since on opening the 

 volume in the middle of the series of C's, you may be in Cedrus^ 

 Cryptomeria, Ciinninghamia, or Cupressus ; worse still, in the 

 longer series of P's you do not know whether you are among Piceas 

 or Pines. Gr. S. Boulger. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



The Gardens' Bulletin Straits Settlements (ii. nos. 3-4, 1918) 

 contains an account by Mr. I. H. Burkill of the establishment and 

 history of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, with notes on Henry 

 James Murton and Nathaniel Cantley (d. 1888) (1853-81), who 

 preceded Mr. Ridley as Curators : an account of the Herbarium was 

 published by Mr, Ridley in the Annual Report on the Gardens for 

 1889. In the Journal of the Straits Branch, R.A.S. (no. 79) 

 Mr. Burkill has a note on the murder of James Motley, which 

 occurred at Bangkal, Labuan, on May 1, 1859. 



The recently issued pai-ts of the North Ameiican Flora (Dec. 30, 

 1918) contain the conclusion of Axel Rydberg's monogmph of the 

 liosacece (vol. xxii. pt. 6) with additions and corrections to the 



