556 
NATURE 
[JULY 22; 51905 


tinue to increase the extent of the national 
forests, and to take on itself more and more the 
production of timber. The book is replete with 
useful formule and tables, and can be recom- 
mended as the best text-book on forest valuation 
yet published in the English language. 
(3) This book on the forest trees and timber 
supply of China undoubtedly contains some in- 
teresting pages. The author, a Chinese customs 
official lately stationed in Manchuria, gives a 
brief history of the forests and timber trade of 
this region, with a description of the modes of 
felling timber and rafting it on the Yalu and 
Sungari rivers. His slight sketches of the forest 
conditions of the other provinces occasionally give 
some information of value. It is sad to learn 
that the ancient hunting forest of the emperors, 
the Weichang in Chili, which Colonel Wingate 
estimated to be 4oo square miles in extent in 1910, 
is now reduced to 100 square miles, owing to 
the ravages of the peasants since the revolution. 
Foochow and Hunan appear to be the most pro- 
lific of the provinces in timber supply; but great 
forests also exist in Szechwan, Kweichow, and 
Yunnan, which are as yet inaccessible. Until, 
however, a report is made by some competent | 
forester, it is impossible to gauge the wealth of 
timber in the interior of China, as many of the 
forests reported by missionaries and travellers, 
while botanically marvellous owing to the variety 
of the shrubs, trees, and herbs, contain only a 
sparse supply of useful timber trees. 
The volume is an uncritical compilation from 
various books, journals, and _ official reports, 
which are indicated in a bibliographical list. It 
is unfortunate that most important sources of 
correct information have not been consulted, such 
as Bretschneider’s learned volumes, “European 
Botanical Discoveries in China” and ‘“ Botanicon 
Sinicum.” The “Index Florez Sinensis,” an 
enumeration of all known Chinese plants, show- 
ing their exact distribution, which was issued 
by the Linnean Society, has not been used by 
Mr. Shaw, who scarcely appreciates the necessity 
for correct nomenclature. The Kew Bulletin, 
which in many volumes contains excellent notes 
and articles on Chinese trees and their peculiar 
products, is not quoted. Valuable papers on the 
Chinese names of trees and shrubs, which ap- 
peared some years ago in the journals of the 
Shanghai and Tokyo branches of the Royal 
Asiatic Society, have escaped notice. 
The book has consequently no scientific value; 
and its numerous errors and omissions cannot 
be dealt with in a brief review. One may, how- 
ever, give an instance. Mr. Norman Shaw pre- 
NO. 2386, VOL. 95] 

faces a confused account in six pages of an im- 
portant coniferous genus, with the statement 
that “the different species of pine in the Chinese 
region appear never to have been classified.” Is 
he unaware that his namesake, Mr. G. R. Shaw, —- 
has fully described the Chinese pines in his great 
monograph, “Genus Pinus,” and in vols. i. 
and iv. of “Plantes Wilsoniane” ? The fascin- 
ating notes appended to the latter by Mr. E. H. 
Wilson would have provided our author with 
trustworthy readable matter, and saved him from 
such erroneous statements as that Pinus maritima, 
a Mediterranean species, is a native of China; and 
that Pinus koraiensis, a northern type not grow- 
ing wild south of Korea, is met with in southern 
China. 
The Chinese names of trees are not invariably 
given, and are often incorrect. Confusion of 
names apparently accounts for such errors as 
that the leaves of the Ailanthus (Chou-chun, 
p. 204) are used as a vegetable, the species thus 
employed being Cedrela sinensis (Hsiang-chun) ; 
and that the wood used for mtsical instruments 
is Sterculia (IVu-tung, p. 256), whereas it is 
Paulownia tomentosa (Pao-tung), a beautiful and 
common tree in China, not mentioned in this 
book. It is the pine-apple and not the screwpine 
(p. 307) which yields the fibre used in making 
fine cloth in Yunnan. Botanical errors are 
numerous, as the inclusion amongst Manchurian 
conifers of three species, Larix leptolepis, Picea 
hondoensis, and Picea polita, which are confined 
to Japan. 
The section of the work, pp. 203-309, devoted 
to trees is inadequate and confused; and we 
advise readers interested to consult the books in- 
dicated by us above, and, in addition, Mr. E. H. 
Wilson’s “ Naturalist in Western China,” which is 
replete with valuable and correct information 
about Chinese trees and their products. 
Mr. Shaw’s forestry is as unsatisfactory as his 
botany. We eagerly opened the book to learn 
something about the extensive afforestation car- 
ried on since 1899 in the German colony of Kiao- 
chao. This is dismissed in a short paragraph 
giving scarcely any information about the species 
employed and their success or failure. Tree 
planting at Weihaiwei and Hongkong, effected 
by the British Government, receives equally in- 
adequate treatment. As the author mentions 
amongst his correspondents Prof. Baillie, of the 
Nanking University, one expected a full account 
of the interesting forestry work begun by the 
latter in Kiangsu. Mr. Shaw merely says (p. 81) 
that “credit is due to Prof. Baillie:for his affores- 
tation scheme on the hills near the old capital.” 

