1897 | CURRENT LITERATURE 57 
lent work, the result of five years’ steady handling and studying of these 
woods in connection with the timber tests of the forestry division, is at once 
instructive and suggestive. The plates accompanying this part, camera 
lucida drawings, are clear and thoroughly illustrative. So far no constant 
distinguishing microscopic features of the species have been found. 
e value of the publication is undoubtedly enhanced to the practical 
man, as well as to the student, by the introduction written by Mr. Fernow. 
While in part it is a resumé of the contents of the volume in most compact 
form, it is original and most useful in that it institutes a comparison of four 
species (Long-leaf, Cuban, Short-leaf, and Loblolly) in their botanical, geo- 
graphical, and biological features, and the mechanical properties of their 
wood. In the latter phase the most exhaustive series of investigations insti- 
tuted in the timber physics section of the forestry division have been the 
basis. The results certainly open an entirely new field of study of the most 
practical bearing, which curiously enough has never before been undertaken 
so systematically. The curves showing the comparative rate of growth in 
diameter, height, and volume, placed the Cuban pine in all cases as the most 
rapid, xs well as persistent grower: the Long-leaf as the slowest, yet persist- 
ent, while the Loblolly, and still more the Short-leaf, decline somewhere near 
the tooth year. This is an important point for future forestry, since we are 
informed that the Cuban pine, protected by its rapid height growth from the 
Start, is gradually displacing the Long-leaf in its own area. 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
THE EXUDATION of gum from grapevine stems has been carefully inves- 
tigated by Professor E. Rathay,' of the Royal Institution of Enology and 
Pomology at Klosternenburg near Vienna. He has gone over the ey 
ant studied the malady from the bacteriological, anatomical, and physiolog- 
ical standpoints, and has arrived at the conclusion that the the abnormal action 
is not brought about by bacteria, as asserted by Prillieux, but is due to 
wound irritation. This irritation induces the formation of t tyloses, resul 
_ in the interruption of oe nae 
death of the Lao ia CAL oe, 
iw i PAPER entitled “ ‘Les Hy post 101 
