1913] CURRENT LITERATURE 81 
product, is in danger of exhaustion within the next two decades. Of the forest 
area less than 2 per cent is virgin, about 10 per cent is barren, while vast 
areas have been burned and are in various stages of reproduction. The pure 
deciduous forest includes less than ro per cent of the whole, and the pure 
coniferous growth about 20 per cent, while the remainder is mixed, varying 
from a beech-maple-hemlock association, with a small percentage of spruce in 
the Annapolis Valley, to one in which birch, spruce, and balsam fir predominate 
in the more rugged portions of the province. 
The ecological part of the survey was carried on principally by Howe and 
his assistants. The geology and topography are carefully considered and related 
to the conditions of reproduction and distribution of the various tree species. 
Special attention is given to the causes and possibilities of the barrens 
e fo 
marketable forest eoae be developed. All the conditions point not only 
to the need of conservation, but also to the comparative ease with which 
it could be ech and the excellent results likely to follow such a policy. 
—Geo. D. Furr 
MINOR NOTICES 
Syllabus der Pfanzenfamilien.7—The student of taxonomy, as well as all 
those who have frequent occasion to use an abbreviated synopsis of the vege- 
table kingdom, will welcome the appearance of this new edition of the well 
known Syllabus. From former editions it differs mainly by the incorporation 
until recently have been placed doubtfully in the natural system are here given 
a definite position in the progressive sequence of orders. For example, the 
Julianiales (Juliania and Orthopterygium) is ranked as an independent order 
and placed between the Juglandales and Fagales in accordance with HEMSLEY’s 
recent treatment. Manifestly, in a work of this scope it would be impossible 
to take cognizance of all genera known up to the time of publication; but a 
statement by these eminent authors of the relative position of the remarkable 
plant described as Mitrastemon, representing the monotypic order Mitraste- 
monales of MAKINO, would have been of interest to the systematist. However, 
this is but a slight omission when one considers that the purpose of the work is 
to serve as a convenient guide for the classification of plants in accordance with 
the most advanced knowledge of the science at the present time. The book 
contains a vast amount of authoritative information in epitomized form, and 
deserves, and doubtless will meet with, a wide circulation among American 
students.—J. M. GrEENMAN, 
R, ADotpH, and Gi1c, Ernst, Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien. pp. Xxxii-+ 
387. pec fe Berlin: Gebriider Borntraeger. 1912. 
