238 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
a distinct species or as a well-marked variety of 4. concolor, 
should receive no notice whatever—would, in fact, seem from 
the Manual to be non-existent. But the merits of the Manual 
are such as to sink into insignificance any shortcomings it 
may possess, and the book may with confidence be recom- 
mended to English readers as a reliable guide to the trees 
of the North American continent. It is provided with a 
synopsis and an excellent analytical key to the families 
described, as well as with a copious glossary of technical 
terms, and a very complete index. Aid RS 
The Royal Forests of England. By J. Cuaries Cox, LL.D., 
F.S.A. Messrs Methuen & Co., 1905. Pp. xvi+372. 
Price’ ys; od. net, 
This is the latest volume of the series in course of publication 
as The Antiquary’s Books. It is therefore, as thus indicated, 
more specially intended for the archeologist desirous of learning 
special details of the operation of the old forest laws, than for 
the modern forester who may wish to know what were the 
habits and practices of the arboriculturists in ancient times— 
after timber-growing became a branch of rural industry in 
England, from the fifteenth century onwards. Such a work as 
a comprehensive “ History of Forestry and Arboriculture in 
England” has never yet been published; and there is little 
chance of its ever appearing, unless undertaken at the cost 
of some society specially interested in this matter. 
Dr Cox’s work deals principally with the ancient laws and their 
administration, and gives much curious information regarding 
the procedure and records of the three different courts of the 
forest—the Woodmote, the Swainmote, and the Eyre or Justice- 
seat. The only recently published works with which it has 
resemblance are Mr W. R. Fisher’s Forest of Lssex, which 
appeared in 1887, and the Select Pleas of the Forest, prepared 
by Mr G. J. Turner, and issued by the Selden Society in 
tgo1. But it differs entirely from both of these in its far 
wider range, because even Mr Turner’s volume deals mainly 
with forest law and procedure in the thirteenth century. 
Dr Cox’s book is divided into thirty chapters, of which the 
first seven deal somewhat briefly with the early forests, forest 
