Il8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



native and of introduced trees ; and the appendices contain a 

 number of useful tables. 



In the preface, the author expresses the opinion that British 

 foresters can be taught their forestry at home only. " I scout 

 any idea," he says, "that a complete training in any Continental 

 school can act other than prejudicially upon those who take such 

 a course," etc. Surely few will concur in this- extreme view. 

 " Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits," and British 

 foresters cannot afford to ignore Continental methods. It is 

 quite true that details of practice must differ widely, but all our 

 modern ideas of forest organisation are derived from Continental 

 sources, and until we can build up organised forests of our own, 

 we must continue to look to the Continent for example and 

 guidance. 



But although all may not agree with some of the author's 

 views on general forestry questions, the volume makes a useful 

 addition to English forestry literature. J. F. A. 



British Woods and their Owners. By John Simpson. 8+116 

 pp., with 14 full-page plates. Price 12s. 6d. net. Pawson 

 and Brailsford, 1909. 



This book may be described as a somewhat rambling state- 

 ment of facts and references to topics more or less connected 

 with British forestry of the past, with the addition of a 

 criticism of the Afforestation Report of the Coast Erosion 

 Commission. The principal chapters in the book are devoted 

 to remarks on German and British forestry, and the commoner 

 forest trees of the country, with short discussions on Planting, 

 Waste and By-products in Woods, Planting of Catchment Areas, 

 etc.; but none of these subjects are very fully dealt with from a 

 practical forester's point of view. 



The author makes a somewhat vague reference to a new kind 

 of wire-netting, and to a newly discovered willow which has 

 apparently not been honoured with a botanical name ; but it 

 cannot be said that there is much in the book which has not 

 been fully discussed in various publications during the last 

 twenty years. The author appears to assume throughout that 

 both British estate owners and their foresters are more or less 

 ignorant of rational wood-management, otherwise he would 



