REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 335 



Society's exclusion to Germany some five years ago. In this 

 development Dr Nisbet, by his writings and teachings, has borne 

 an important part, and we are sure that his new volume will 

 do much to advance the forward movement. W. S. 



Veitch's Manual of the Coniferce. Second Edition. By 

 Adolpiius H. Kent. Pp. 562, and many Illustrations. 

 London : James Veitch & Sons, Ltd., Royal Exotic Nursery, 

 Chelsea (1900). 



All lovers of the beautiful in nature, whether directly interested in 

 arboriculture or otherwise, lie under a deep debt of gratitude to Messrs 

 J. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, for the publication of this second edition 

 of their already well-known and widely-read hand-book of the Conifers. 



The work has been almost entirely rewritten, and the present 

 volume contains a large amount of new matter. This is especially 

 true of the earlier sections ; and in this part of the book, perhaps 

 the most important chapter, from a practical point of view, is that 

 devoted to coniferine pathology, including a general account of 

 the more important disease-producing fungi, by such an eminent 

 authority as Professor Marshall Ward, along with a valuable 

 description, from the pen of Mr W. F. H. Blandford, of the chief 

 insect pests, and the injuries which they cause in coniferous wood. 



The economic products of the Coniferce, ranging, as these do 

 from timber to amber, are also discussed at considerable length, 

 while in the opening chapter the author provides a general de- 

 scription of the morphological characters exhibited by some leading 

 coniferous types, both during germination and in adult life. 



In the body of the book — while we must regret the omission of 

 tropical genera and species, which, though unsuited to outside 

 cultivation in these islands, are not unfrequent denizens of our 

 conservatories — we have a detailed account of all the forms likely 

 to be of practical value to the forester ; and in this connection a 

 word must be said in praise of the illustrations, which are more 

 than doubled in number, and still retain the high character which 

 distinguished them in the first edition. 



The system of classification adopted is that which we owe to 

 Dr Maxwell Masters, with the exception that Glyptostrobus is 

 included in Taxodiwm, and a new genus, Abietia, is created to 

 combine Pseudotsuga and Keteleeria; but time alone can show 

 whether this new harbour of refuge will for long protect these 

 weather-beaten plants from the troubled waters of taxonomic 

 discussion. J. A. T. 



