240 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
rolls, were the two indigenous varieties of oak, sessziffora and 
pedunculata ?” 
In these early days the beech received little attention, and 
all that we are told about it is that ‘‘The beech is named with 
a fair amount of frequency in forest accounts ; there were beech- 
woods of some size in Windsor, Pickering, Northamptonshire, 
and Clarendon forests, and it is often named in Hampshire 
records. The Windsor records show that beech was used for 
shipbuilding purposes.” Nevertheless, the Forest of Dean, 
which probably comprised a larger compact mass of woodlands 
than any other royal forest, must surely have contained from 
time immemorial a considerable proportion of beech. 
The work is well illustrated with quaint plates and woodcuts, 
and altogether it forms a very handy volume, throwing interest- 
ing side-lights on the forests, foresters, landowners, and rural 
population of ancient times. Hon. Ep. 
Webster’s Practical Forestry: A Popular Handbook on the Rear- 
ing and Growth of Trees for Profit or Ornament. By A. D. 
WessTEeR. London: Wm. Rider & Son, Ltd., 1905. Fourth 
Edition, enlarged. Price 53s. 
This, the fourth, edition of Mr Webster’s Handbook has been 
considerably enlarged, and the whole work has been brought 
up to date. New chapters have been added dealing with such 
matters as the afforestation of our waste lands and the education 
of foresters, and these chapters, coming as they do from one who 
has written so much on matters pertaining to forestry, and whose 
opinions regarding the whole question were considered of such 
importance as to justify the Royal Horticultural Society in 
selecting him to give evidence as their representative before the 
Departmental Committee of 1902, should furnish interesting 
reading, although we do not agree with everything the author 
says, nor can we concede that he is the originator of all the 
ideas which he puts forward. Besides being a useful contribu- 
tion to our forestry literature, the book has a value of its own as 
a work of reference in such departments as seaside- and town- 
planting (in the latter of which the author is an authority), and 
several other branches of forestry and arboriculture which are 
less fully treated in some of the other works. It should form a 
part of every forester’s library. A. Die 
