166 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Timber : A Comprehensive Study of Wood in all its Aspects, 

 Commercial and Botanical, showing the Different Apjylica- 

 tions and Uses of Timber in Various Trades, etc. Translated 

 from the French of Paul Charpentier, Expert Chemical 

 Engineer, Assayer of the French Mint, etc. By Joseph 

 Kennell. 437 pp. and 178 Illustrations. London: Scott, 

 Greenwood, k Co., 19 Ludgate Hill, E.C., 1902. 



This work embraces a wider field than Professor Boalger's 

 Wood, bat it scarcely runs on parallel lines with it. The 

 book consists of six parts. The first deals with the physical and 

 chemical properties of wood, the second with descriptions of the 

 diiferent species of trees, the third with the useful varieties of 

 timber in the different countries of the world, the fourth with 

 forests, the fifth with the preservation of timber, and the sixth 

 with the applications and uses of timber. 



The general plan of the book is excellent, and, errors excepted, 

 it contains a great deal of very useful information ; but in some 

 respects, notably in the botanical parts, ic has suffered severely at 

 the hands of the translator. Besides, the botanical illustrations 

 are very crude, and, in many instances, very much out of date ; 

 while in some, such as those representing the leaves of the 

 common alder, the Norway maple, and the grey poplar, the 

 resemblance to the originals is so slight that it would be hopeless 

 to attempt identification by their means. The nomenclature, too^ 

 is very much out of joint, and the spelling of both the Latin and 

 English names is inexcusable. The common chestnut is Fagns 

 castanea ; the American Chestnut (a tree of the same genus) is 

 Castanea vesca; Mercus Cerris is the "fibrous" or Burgundy or 

 Austrian oak, while Turkey oak, the name by which it is almost 

 universally known in Britain, is not even mentioned. The Swiss 

 Stone Pine occurs as Cimbrian Pine, Cembrian Pine, Pinus 

 cembro, P. cimbra, and F. cembra. Pinus sylvestris is Sylvester 

 Pine. The Scotch Pine is Pinus rubra, and the description of 

 this very important timber tree is as follows : — " In Scotland 

 lai'ge forests are formed of this tree. It grows naturally in the 

 Alps and Pyrenees. It is generally considered as a variety of 

 the Sylvester pine, and serves the same purposes." 



[n the third part of the book, in the chapter dealing with 

 European timber, the forestry of great Britain is disposed of 

 thus : — " In this country, which was formerly nothing more than 



