CURRENT LITERATURE. 

 Henry S. Graves, in Charge. 



Trees. A Handbook of Forest- botayiy for the Woodlaiids and 

 the Laboratory. H. Marshall Ward. Cambridge University 

 Press, 1904-5. 



This is the first text-book of forest botany published in the 

 English language. As is natural, since the work is by the author 

 of such helpful popular books as The Oak, Timber and some of 

 its Diseases, Disease in Plants, etc., we find the subject matter 

 presented in a clear, logical manner, comprising all the prin- 

 cipal facts on the morphology of woody plants. The work 

 appears in a series of volumes, three of which have already been 

 pubhshed. These are : Vol. I. Buds and Twigs, 271 pp., 1904 ; 

 Vol. II. lycaves, 348 pp., 1904; Vol. III. Flowers and Inflo- 

 rescences, 402 pp., 1905. Succeeding volumes will treat of Fruits 

 and Seeds, Seedlings, and the Habit and Conformation of the Tree. 



Each volume is divided into a general and a special part. In 

 Vol. I, after the first or general part has dealt with a general 

 description of the shoot system, the bud, the tegumentary system, 

 leaf scars, twigs, lenticels, etc. , in which every detail of external 

 character and internal structure is discussed, a second special part 

 is devoted to a classification with a key to woody plants, most of 

 which are European, based on bud and twig characters. 



In a similar manner Vols. II and III are arranged, the first 

 part treating the subject in a general way ; the second part being 

 devoted to a classification of the woody plants according to their 

 leaf characters in Vol. II and their flowers and inflorescence sys- 

 tems in Vol. III. 



One admirable feature of the series is the purpose shown 

 throughout of laying stress on the permanent characters of woody 

 plants ; that is, those features by which they may be recognized 

 the year around, making of secondary or at least of only coordi- 

 nate importance those more or less fleeting characters of flower 

 and fruit to which so much attention is paid in our manuals of 

 botany. 



The object of the author, as he states in his preface is "to 

 encourage an acquaintance at first hand with the plant in its own 

 home : not merely a knowledge of the characters of the flowers,. 



