NOTES AND QUERIES. I09 



A tabular statement is given which shows that Russia 

 possesses 1,125,000,000 acres of timber-land, as against the 

 132,852,000 acres of the various European countries. For a 

 few years previous to the war the exports from Russia 'to 

 Germany rose from 48-8 per cent, to 50 per cent, of the total 

 timber imported by the latter, while the exports from Austria- 

 Hungary diminished, and became only half of the amount 

 Germany imported from Russia. 



The report of the Russian Consul in London, which was 

 published a year ago, shows that the imports of timber into 

 England from Russia were increasing much faster than those 

 from Scandinavia or the United States, and that England was 

 receiving more timber from Russia than Germany, but even at 

 her best Russia was far behind other timber-exporting countries 

 in proportion to her acreage of timber-land. Russia has the 

 material which, if properly developed, would yield the bulk of 

 the timber necessary for other European countries. Through 

 the development of her timber industries, Russia can find a 

 practical solution for future financial problems by establishing 

 a foreign trade balance which will assist in the payment of the 

 national debt. A. W. B. 



REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles. By W. J. Bean, 

 Assistant Curator, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Two 

 volumes. Illustrated. London: John Murray, 1914. 



Such has been the enterprise and diligence of recent collectors 

 — so rich and so varied their spoil — that in no similar space of 

 time has such a number of new species of flowering plants been 

 introduced to Great Britain as during the last five-and-twenty 

 years. The profusion is bewildering, nor is there any symptom 

 of the supply approaching exhaustion. It has outstripped the 

 industry of the most up-to-date writers on horticulture. It is 

 little more than three years since Mr W. J. Bean published his 

 Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles — by far the most 

 complete and exhaustive treatise on the subject that has come 

 from the press since John Loudon's day, fulfilling for ornamental 

 planting what Elwes and Henry have done for forestry in their 



