CURRENT LITERATURE 



The Southern Cypress. By W. R. J\Iattoon. Bulletin 272, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture. Contribution from the Forest 

 Service. Washington, D. C, 1915. Pp. 74. 



Thirty years ago, in the early beginnings of an interest in 

 the subject of forestry, the reviewer, then Chief of the Division 

 of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture, as one of the first 

 undertakings planned a series of monographs on the important 

 timber trees of the United States. Their object was to be to 

 bring to realization the importance and value, and the develop- 

 ment and requirements of the species as a basis for devising 

 proper methods of silvicultural management. At that time ap- 

 propriations were scanty and all that could be done was to inter- 

 est botanists as voluntary collaborators for a nominal honorarium 

 to produce what they could, the plan of the work being outlined 

 to them.^ 



The White Pine by Spaulding and Fernow, and The Timber 

 Pines of the Southern States, by Mohr, were results of this plan, 

 published, to be sure, many years afterwards, when improvement 

 in appropriations had permitted to add the result of more special 

 studies and measurements. 



Among the species so farmed out, as it were, was the Bald 

 cypress. Mr. A. H. Curtiss, a botanist of good repute, familiar 

 with the Southern forests, had the assignment and furnished an 

 essay in which he laid down his knowledge ; but it was lacking 

 in precise data and hence was not published. Later, it was 

 handed to Dr. Mohr for amplification, and toward the end of the 

 reviewer's administration Dr. Mohr submitted a report, which 

 was not published, but it is quoted by the author of the above 

 Bulletin. 



Now, with ample funds to travel, to measure, to study, a man 

 applying himself exclusively to the one task in hand of studying 

 the species in all parts of its field, it should be possible to produce, 

 if not much better, yet much fuller results. The author has used 

 these opportunities to best advantage and certainly has made a 



'See Annual Report, Division of Forestry, 1886, pp. 177-8. 

 522 



