December 30, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



965 



brought out the " Cyclopedia of American 

 Horticulture " he covered the whole field here 

 referred to most completely, but the four- to 

 six-volume size of the work, together with its 

 very considerable cost, practically prohibits its 

 ownership by the individual student. 



So it is with most hearty approval that the 

 writer opens the little book entitled " Orna- 

 mental Shrubs of the United States," by the 

 late Professor Austin C. Apgar (American 

 Book Company). In 352 small octavo pages 

 the author has packed away a great deal of 

 information as to the shrubs one is likely to 

 meet in the eastern part of the country, and 

 his brief descriptions are helped out by 621 

 wood-cuts which accompany the text. Those 

 who are familiar with Apgar's " Trees of the 

 Northern United States " will find in this 

 book a counterpart to that very useful book 

 of fifteen to twenty years ago, before the ap- 

 pearance of Britton and Brown's " Illustrated 

 Flora," or Sargent's " Trees of North Amer- 

 ica." Apgar's " Trees " was the forerunner 

 of our illustrated manuals, and it taught us 

 the value of properly selected drawings as 

 aids to the more formal descriptions, a lesson 

 which has not been lost upon later authors. 



The book now before us has a twenty-page 

 introduction, which may be necessary, but 

 which probably should be relegated to the fine- 

 print glossary at the end of the text. Then 

 follow about twenty pages of keys, which 

 should enable the merest tyro to " run down " 

 the plants he may have in hand. These we 

 have not tested, but no doubt they will prove 

 usable. No one can make keys that are not 

 now and then misleading, and no doubt now 

 and then the student will get " off the track," 

 but in such event he will simply have to try 

 again until he succeeds in reaching his des- 

 tination — the name and description of the 

 unknown shrub. 



The manuscript of this book was left prac- 

 tically complete by its author at his death, 

 and it was prepared for publication by his 

 daughter and Professor Harshberger. The 

 book should merit an early new edition, and 

 when that is made the nomenclature and the 

 recognition and sequence of families should 



be modernized. The Benthamian sequence is 

 quite too much out of date for a book of this 

 kind. 



AN IMPORTANT EXPERIMENT 



"Experiment Station Work with Special 

 Eeference to the Streamflow Study" is the 

 title of a paper recently presented by Mr. C. 

 G. Bates before the Society of American 

 Foresters at Washington. After briefly re- 

 viewing the work of the Coconino Forest 

 Experiment Station in Arizona and of the 

 Fremont and Wagon Wheel Gap Stations in 

 Colorado, Mr. Bates described in detail the 

 methods and equipment to be used in the 

 streamflow experiment now under way at the 

 last-named station. This experiment, which 

 is being carried on jointly by the Forest 

 Service and the Weather Bureau, involves the 

 measurement for a number of years of two 

 streams flowing out of forested watersheds, 

 and, later, a comparison of the flow of these 

 streams after the forest cover has been re- 

 moved from one of the watersheds. Dams, 

 weirs and recording instruments for measur- 

 ing the flow of the streams have been installed 

 as well as instruments for measuring the 

 various atmospheric factors which may affect 

 the flow. No point has been neglected in 

 making this experiment as conclusive as pos- 

 sible. By means of the two periods of com- 

 parison between the two streams the impor- 

 tance of all outside factors is practically 

 eliminated. 



This experiment, which has been preceded 

 by but one of a similar nature in Switzerland, 

 is in reality much more comprehensive than 

 any yet undertaken and should throw a good 

 deal of light on the much-mooted question of 

 the relation of forests on mountain watersheds 

 to the flow of the mountain streams and to 

 their usefulness for irrigation. 



PLANT genera 



Quite recently the Leipzig publisher, 

 Weigel, brought out a most useful book, " Die 

 Pflanzengattungen," by J. C. T. Uphof, of 

 Amsterdam, who signs himself as " Botaniker 

 und Gartenbautecliniker." It gives the ap- 

 proved name, geographical distribution, num- 



