SAMUEL MARGERISON. Effects of noxious vapours and salt- 

 spray on the Vegetation of Oak-trees in England. The 

 Vegetation of Some Disused Quarries. Reviewed in 

 Geographical Journal, Vol. XXXV, N. 6, June 1910, p. 718. 



The oaks, owing to the somewhat polluted atmosphere con- 

 sequent upon the industries of the West Riding of Yorkshire, are 

 failing somewhat rapidly. To the writer of the review in the Geo- 

 graphical Journal on Mr. Margerison's paper it has always seemed 

 most remarkable that the oak indigenous to the British soil is, 

 with the exception perhaps ot the conifer tribe, the very first to 

 succumb to the injurious effects of sulphurous and carbonaceous 

 impurities in the atmosphere, arising from the combustion of coal, 

 where some imported species like the plane-tree are good smoke 

 resisters. Not only does the oak fail in the great industrial areas of 

 the North and Midlands of England, but also in the comparatively 

 pure atmospere of inner London, the parks of which are thus 

 deprived of one of the most essential and striking features of normal 

 English botanical landscape. 



The British oak, in fact, with all its strength and rugged grandeur, 

 has many points of weakness, and does not endure the salt spray 

 of the sea so well as many other trees, with the consequence that 

 it rarely fringes the seashore. 



XII. 



Percolation of rainfall and storage of water in rocks and 

 soils. Ground-water, springs, wells, ponds, etc. Movements 

 of water in the soil. Conditions that affect soil-moisture. 

 Composition of natural waters. Drinking waters and 

 waters for irrigation. Protection of the purity of streams. 



A. C. HOUSTON (Director [of Water ^Examination : Report to the 

 Metropolitan Water Board, London). Water purification : Ad- 

 vantages of storing previous to its filtration. Monthly 

 Consular and Trade Reports. June 1909. Washington, 1909. 



The U. S. Consul-General Robert J. Wynne, of London, transmits 

 the following synopsis of a report made by Dr. A. Houston, director 

 of water examinations, to the Metropolitan Water Board. 



