26o Forestry Quarterly. 



greater scientific certainty how our western yellow-pine forests 

 should be managed. This study merely attempted to lay the 

 scientific foundation upon which to base the broad principle of 

 forest management of western yellow pine in the Southwest." 



S. J. R. 



Anfiual Report of the Director of the Department of Botanical 

 Research. By D. T. MacDougal. 1913. Pp. 1-87. 



Dr. MacDougal's annual report contains an interesting account 

 of the treelessness of the prairie regions, by W. A. Cannon, and 

 the root characters of trees grown in the coastal climate of Cali- 

 fornia, by the same writer. It appears that "Mesophytic trees 

 should attain a perennially moist soil — such resistant species as 

 mesquite may persist — if the water table lies within 40 feet of the 

 surface." In Kansas and Nebraska the water table is often less 

 than 40 feet along streams, but on adjacent higher lands it is 

 from 60 to several hundred feet, where, although the soils may be 

 favorable, forests are unable to exist. The open character of the 

 oak forests so typical of Southern California, Dr. Cannon found, 

 were directly the result of far-reaching superficial roots. 



T. S. W. Jr. 



Makers of British Botany. A Collection of Biographies by 

 Living Botanists. Edited by F. W. Oliver. Cambridge Uni- 

 versity Press. 1913. Pp. 332. 



This book consists of a series of delightful essays on the life 

 and work of outstanding British botanists of the past, from the 

 earliest down to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker who died in 191 1 — 

 Morison (1620-1683), Ray, Grew, Hales, Hill, Robert Brown, 

 William Hooker, Henslow, Lindley, Griffith, Henfrey, Harvey, 

 Berkeley, Gilbert, Williamson, Ward, and Joseph Dalton Hooker. 

 The title is not a happy one, for neither has there been a school of 

 British botany as distinct from German, Italian, or any other, 

 nor does the editor make any such assumption. 



British botanists have taken a part in most of the important ad- 

 vances made in the science of botany and some have been pioneers. 



