220 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
contains a vast amount of matter which is historical and legal, 
and which is probably not the least interesting reading. The 
history of forestry in Britain is divided into three periods :—The 
first period takes us from the earliest times to 1482, the second 
to 1850, and the third to the present day. In a racy manner 
the author deals with the transition from game-preserving and 
ornamental or arboricultural ideas to the production of timber 
of commercial value. Special attention is given to the Reports 
by the Royal Commission of 1786, the Select Committees of 
1885 and 1889, and the Departmental Committee of 1902, on 
the condition and prospects of forestry at these dates. The 
criticism is not in every case favourable, and in summing up 
the results of the 1902 Committee, the author certainly does 
not do them justice when he says that they “did little else than 
endorse the conclusions of the Select Committee of 1885-87... .” 
In dealing with the national-economic importance of wood- 
lands the author appears as a statesman of no mean order, and 
while all who have given the matter due consideration will 
agree with him that the encouragement of existing wood- 
consuming industries, and the creation of new ones, must go 
hand in hand with any great increase of our woodland area, if it 
is to be a financial success, the method of bringing this about 
at which he hints, viz., fiscal changes, apparently does not at 
present commend itself to the majority of the inhabitants of 
these islands. 
Whether there are still 3,342,000 acres of waste land plantable 
with profit is a point which need not be discussed; but the area 
given by Dr Nisbet is probably much below the actual amount, 
and indeed the 1000 feet contour line might be exceeded in 
very many places with probably better results than have been 
attained at lower elevations, as for example with the larch. 
The second part deals with the British Sylva—Our Woodland 
and Ornamental Trees. This part consists of two chapters— 
Chapter I. concerning broad-leaved trees, while Chapter II. 
deals with coniferous trees. As the title suggests, both broad- 
leaved and coniferous species are treated from an arboricultural as 
well as from a sylvicultural standpoint. The first chapter, which 
is devoted to the broad-leaved trees, opens with a discussion as 
to which are indigenous to these islands, and which have 
become naturalised as denizens of our woodlands. Although 
this chapter deals with broad-leaved trees, still, we suppose for 
