Kii\]i;\vs 85;) 



Economic Woods of the United States. By Samuel J. Record. John 

 Wiley & Sons, Inc. Second edition, 1919. 



This is a revision of the first edition, which is su wdl known to for- 

 estry students. Only a few changes of minor importance, chiefly in 

 nomenclature, were made in Part I, Structural and Physical Properties 

 of Wood. The author changed "bars of Sanio" to "Trabeculae : Sanio's 

 beams" and "tier-like arrangement of elements" to " 'ripple-marks.' " 



The essential differences between this edition and the first (1912) 

 are briefly stated in the preface of the second edition, as follow^ s : "(i) 

 The key has been entirely rewritten and rearranged, several new woods 

 are included, and more of the common names are given ; (2) the lists 

 of references and the general bibliography have been brought up to 

 date; (3) an Appendix has been added which amplifies some of the 

 subject-matter of Part I and also includes considerable new data on 

 wood structure." 



The principal changes in the key are as follows: Alesquite. yellow- 

 wood, California pepperwood, and apple have been added to the key. 

 and Engelmann spruce has been grouped with white spruce. Water 

 ash and box elder have been removed from the key proper and put into 

 foot-notes. Water hickory has been combined with the other pecan 

 hickories. Red spruce and black spruce have been combined into one 

 group, as also have hackberry and sugarberry, and winged elm and 

 cedar elm. 



The key has been rearranged so that, as far as practical, woods with 

 similar properties are close together. For example, Douglas fir follows 

 the Southern pines, cypress follows redwood, and blue beech follows 

 liop hornbeam. In the first edition these were separated by other 

 species. The propriety of this change is questionable. It is doubtful, 

 for instance, whether the new classification of Douglas fir with pine 

 under "Resin ducts plainly visible without a lens, numerous to mod- 

 erately so, and fairly well distributed" is as good as that in the first 

 edition, in which Douglas fir was grouped with tamarack under "Resin 

 ducts mostly inconspicuous, not numerous, irregularly distributed or 

 grouped." The reviewer believes that the resin ducts in Douglas fir 

 are more like those in tamarack and spruce than like those in pine, 

 and that accuracy has been sacrificed for convenience in ]:)lacing the fir 

 with pine instead of with tamarack and s])ruce. which are in the same 

 group in the second edition. 



A feature of the new key is that all characters rec|uiring a microscope 

 for observation are given in smaller type. 



