314 Forestry Quarterly. 



its protective service, and whose towns were filled with smoke 

 in that year, no statistics of the extent of fires were collected, 

 nor does the realization that they did damage, even though no 

 merchantable timber was destroyed, seem to have come to the 

 authorities. 



The partial information shows 835 fires reported, occasioning a 

 damage of over $25,000,000, besides the loss of 22 lives, which 

 occured at the great fire in Fernie, B. C. An expenditure of 

 $374,000 in fighting fires was occasioned, Ontario spending most, 

 with $210,000, the Dominion and New Brunswick each with 

 $50,000 being second, Quebec spending $24,000, and Nova Scotia, 

 which seems now the best protected, $6,089. It is a mistake to 

 charge this last amount to public expense, for most of this money 

 is collected from the timberland owners holding more than 500 

 acres, while any deficiencies in payment for the cost of the service 

 is collected from the municipalities, the Provincial government 

 itself incurring no expense. 



It is gratifying to note that the United States can be referred 

 to as one of the countries coping successfully with the fire evil, 

 reference being made to the decrease of fires in the National 

 Forests during the years from 1904 to 1907, when the burned 

 over area was gradually reduced from 0.66 to 0.07 per cent. 



B. E. F. 



Trees: a handbook of forest botany for the woodlands and the 

 laboratory. Vol. IV: Fruits. By H. M. Ward. New York, 

 1908. Price, $1.50. 



The interest to us in this posthumous volume, as well as in the 

 preceding ones of the series, lies in the method of treatment of the 

 subject, since the descriptions refer only to trees of Great Britain. 

 The method is to describe separately leaves and twigs, flowers and 

 inflorescence, fruits and wood, preceding the specific descriptions 

 by general discussions of the morphology of each, and giving keys 

 based on characters of each of these features. 



Illustriertes Handbuch der Laubholzkunde. By C. K. 

 Schneider. 8 Lieferung, pp. 241-366. Jena, 1909. 



This is a monumental work, most thorough and practical, on 

 the deciduous tree flora indigenous and introduced into middle 



