746 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



The Hardwoods of Australia and Their Bconomics. By Richard 

 T. Baker. Technical Education Series No. 23, Technological Museum, 

 N. S. W., Sydney. 1919. Pp. 522; colored plates, 135; half-tone 

 figures, 194. 



This impressive volume has for its object "primarily to arouse a 

 keener interest in, and to make knov^n to Australians in particular and 

 the world in general, the diversity of hardwoods with which nature 

 has endowed this wonderful continent. 'Especially is it written for the 

 technologist in wood — the architect, builder, saw-miller, engineer, 

 cabinet-maker, and, not least by any means, the forester." 



The book is divided into three parts. Part I, "written more 

 especially for the student," covers 26 pages and deals with the physical 

 properties of timber under twelve headings, namely, (1) color, (2) 

 grain, figure, texture, (3) taste, (4) scent or odor, (5) wood structure, 

 (6) sapwood, (7) annual rings, (8) weight, (9) tests, (10) durabihty, 

 (11) crystals, (12) combustibility of Australian timber. 



Part II, designed for "the student, the commercial man, and the 

 technologist," covers 354 pages and takes up the individual species of 

 hardwood. "As near as possible the botanical systematic arrange- 

 ment follows on the lines of that of the English botanists, Bentham 

 and Hooker, and for obvious reasons these war times. With few 

 exceptions only those species actually yielding a good hardwood are 

 enumerated." From a "rough computation" Australia has probably 

 less than 500 tree species, of which far the greater number belong to 

 the Myrtacese and the Leguminosse. The genus Bii'Calyptus is said to 

 cover at least two-thirds of the whole surface and these trees supply 

 the bulk of the hardwoods of both the local and export timber trade 

 of that country. 



Part III, written more particularly for the commercial man and the 

 technologist, devotes 100 pages to technological matters. There are 

 four technical articles, namely, (1) determination of specific timbers, 

 (2) nomenclature, (3) seasoning of timber, (4) preservation of tim- 

 ber. Most of Part III, however, covers the uses of Australian hard- 

 woods under the headings of architectural, engineering and miscella- 

 neous. 



The most conspicuous feature of this book is the array of excellent 

 illustrations, the 126 chromatic plates showing the natural appearance 

 of the woods. Tbese plates are of exceptional merit. The half-tones 



