164 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the natural family and native country of the plant from which it 

 is derived, information as to its general appearance, its specific 

 gravity and weight, the principal uses to which it is applied in the 

 industrial arts, and other useful data, and, ia the case of the more 

 important kinds, the structural characters by which the wood may 

 be identified. 



The book is the production of a botanist, and, as might have 

 been expected, the purely botanical part has received a good deal 

 of attention. The first chapter, dealing with the origin, structure, 

 and development of wood and its uses to the tree, forms an excel- 

 lent introduction to the other parts of the work, but, it is to be 

 feared, will prove rather too technical for any but those who 

 possess some knowledge of plant anatomy. Some statements in 

 this part, too, seem open to criticism. For example, the author 

 refers to the term " bark " as being a misleading one. " Outside 

 the cambium," he says, "is the rind, or, as it is commonly but 

 somewhat misleadingly termed, hark, made up of the outer and 

 often corky cortex, and the inner, largely fibrous, phloem or hast." 

 The term "bark," as is well known, is not always used in the 

 same sense, and botanists do not agree as to its limitation. Some 

 use it in the same sense as the forester, including within its scope 

 evei'ything outside the loood cambium ; others limit the terra to 

 the tissues outside the cork cambium, or phellogen, a layer which 

 is somewhat variable in position. But the term " rind," which 

 the author uses, is one which will appeal to few. There seems to 

 be a tendency amongst botanists to use the term bark in the wider 

 sense in which it is used by the forester, and it would be a decided 

 advantage if the practice became universal, as a great deal of tire- 

 some confusion would thus be got rid of. The second chapter, 

 deiling with the recognition and classification of woods, is an 

 extremely useful one, and the photo-micrographic illustrations 

 with which the work is provided (most of which have already 

 appeared elsewhere) will be found very useful in connection with 

 this part of the subject. The remaining chapters of the first part, 

 dealing with defects, seasoning, etc., of timber, contain a great 

 deal of useful matter, although, perhaps, in a somewhat condensed 

 form. 



The second part of the book, which deals with the sources, 

 characters, and uses of the woods of commerce, is the larger, and, 

 in some respects, the more important one. To all who have to 

 deal with converted timbers in any shape or form, whether of 



