GSURRENT LITERATURE 
BOOK REVIEWS 
Handbook of Dendrology 
The first volume of ScHNEIDER’s work is now complete and it must be 
judged a very important addition to dendrological literature.t It contains the 
families from Salicaceae to Pomaceae, and therefore deals with some of the most 
difficult families and genera of ligneous plants. The treatment is very exhaustive 
and an immense amount of information has been crowded into a comparatively 
small space. This could not be done without some disadvantage, however, for 
until one has become familiar with the shortened technical terms and the whole 
arrangement of the book. At the first glance it becomes apparent that the work 
is not a mere compilation, but based on original and thorough studies. The 
author shows himself well versed in botanical literature, both the older and the 
more recent, and must have examined a vast amount of herbarium material, for 
he quotes freely herbarium specimens, particularly in the more critical and in the 
new and more recently published species; in regard to Crataegus, for instance, 
he remarks that he had examined about 2000 specimens of American species. 
The general treatment resembles somewhat that of ASCHERSON and GRAEB- 
NER’S Mitteleuropdischer Flora, and, as in that work, much attention has been 
paid to varieties and hybrids, which of course is to be expected in a book devoted 
chiefly to cultivated plants. The arrangement of the species under dichotomous 
keys facilitates determination; some large genera are preceded by special keys, 
e. g., there is a key to determine the 65 species of oaks from the foliage, and one 
to determine the 62 species of willows from flowering specimens without leaves. 
A great help for the determination are the numerous clear and well-reproduced 
illustrations, mostly representing analyses; according to the numbering they are 
460, but each consists of 10 to 20 separate drawings, chiefly by the author himself. 
Not only are the species actually in cultivation described, but also related species 
not in cultivation and species likely to be sooner or later introduced are mentioned 
and more or less fully described, so that in several cases the treatment amounts 
really to a short monograph on the genus in question. Many new species and 
varieties, chiefly from China, but also from North America, appear here for the 
first time, and of course a large number of new combinations have incidentally 
been made. The nomenclature is that of the Vienna Congress; unfortunately 
HNEIDER, CAMILLO Kart, [IIlustriertes Handbuch der Laubholzkunde; 
Chita teristik der in Mitteleuropa niga seri im Freien angepflanzten angio- 
spermen Gehdélz-Arten und Formen mit A ue der Bambuseen und Kakteen 
Band I. 8vo. pp. 810. figs. 460. Jena. ah 
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