REVIEWS 425 



largely outside of this state, there are about 60 tree species native to 

 Nebraska. These are mostly pioneers from the eastern forest that for 

 reasons unknown have alone been able to push into the treeless region, 

 surviving the great prairie fires that swept unchecked across Nebraska 

 before the days of cultivated fields. 



The distribution maps are accurate and the discussion of the ranges 

 under each species constitute a valuable contribution to forest geog- 

 raphy. A dotted line appears across the base maps which although 

 not so designated, is evidently the 100th meridian. Western trees 

 cross this line eastward and eastern species extend further westward, 

 but the reviewer has accepted this meridian as the most logical dividing 

 line between the eastern and western forests in a recent contribution 

 on the distribution of western conifers. (American Limiherman, 

 Chicago, April 3, 1920.) 



Doctor Pool's handbook evidences in the most pleasing manner the 

 present trend in botanical literature. It is an unfortunate fact that 

 popular interest in a natural science remains lethargic until the experts 

 exhaust its taxonomic and nomenclatorial aspects. No better exempli- 

 fication of this truth can be found than by a comparison of the progress 

 toward popular literature in the fields of entomology, dendrology and 

 ornithology. Our native birds are about all known. The experts no 

 longer disagree and popular manuals of bird study are being sold by 

 the hundreds of thousands. Dendrology should have reached this 

 happy estate first because we have only about half as many species of 

 native trees as of native birds, and illustration of the distinguishing 

 characteristics of trees does not require expensive color printing. 

 Entomology naturally follows behind on account of the enormous 

 number of species of insects involved and the large number of new 

 species annually discovered. 



Dendrologists, therefore, are fortunately situated to adequately 

 supply the popular demand for tree books. Their genera and species 

 are more or less stabilized with the exception of a few special groups 

 like the hawthorns which are even more confusing to the botanist than 

 are the wood-warblers to the ornithologists. With such manuals as 

 this excellent handbook, the so-called laity need no longer exclaim with 

 Thomas A. Kempis : "What have we to do with genus and species ?" 



With a guide like this, the uninformed may have a great deal to do 

 with genera and species of trees in the region covered. Dendro- 

 logically he may get wisdom, and if with that wisdom he can also get 

 understanding, lie may approach closer than ever before to the mys- 



