REVIEWS 747 



showing forest scenes and uses of woods are also good ; the photo- 

 micrographs are for the most part only fair. 



A casual inspection of the book leaves a very favorable impression ; 

 but unfortunately upon closer scrutiny one cannot but feel that the 

 author sometimes failed to make the most of his opportunity. The 

 work could easily have been made more comprehensive without mate- 

 rial increase in the size and cost of the volume and various errors and 

 ambiguities should have been avoided. 



The title. ''The Hardwoods of Australia," leads one to infer that all 

 of the dicotyledonous trees of the continent are covered, when as a 

 matter of fact a small percentage of them are omitted because their 

 wood is not hard. "Hardwood," written as one word, has the gen- 

 erally accepted meaning of "broadleaf" or dicotyledonous wood as 

 opposed to "softwood," which is derived from conifers or gymno- 

 sperms. The author has used it, however, wath reference to hardness, 

 which is never uniform in woods and which is often widely variable 

 within the same species, and he is accordingly forced to draw an 

 arbitrary line of demarcation where in reality only a twilight zone 

 exists. 



The descriptions of the different woods are too brief and sketchy ; 

 there is an absence of important detail and balance. The photomicro- 

 graphs are very helpful in a study of the structure, but they cannot 

 replace careful, detailed descriptions. Moreover, the descriptions of 

 anatomical features as given arc not always clear, due to a lax use of 

 technical terms. The most conspicuous example is the constant misuse 

 of "perforations" when referring to "pits." Some other instances of 

 vagueness are as follows : The walls of wood parenchyma cells are 

 said to be "pitted with single pits" (p. 19) ; rays are described as 

 "unicellular" (p. 3G) ; rays are "sometimes bounded top and bottom by 

 vertically celled tracheids" (p. 38) : "the vessels are of limited divisions 

 between the partition walls" (p. 183). What is the force of the term 

 "uniseriate" in these sentences : "The rays are numerous, uniseriate, 

 one cell in width" (p. 220), and "the rays are very numerous, uniseri- 

 ate, nearly always only one cell wide" (p. 231)? The reveiwer is in 

 doubt as to just what is meant by ivood parenchyma "running with the 

 rays" (p. 338). 



In discussing the Olacinese (jx nn) the author, confusing it with 

 the Oleace.T, erroneously states that "it is from this family that the 

 timbers of the common ashes (Fra.vinns excelsior and kindred species) 



