BOOK REVIEW 



A new revision of a popular manual of trees^ 



The fourth edition of Schaffner's Field Manual of Trees is 

 but little changed from the third edition. The first edition ap- 

 peared in 1914. The book contains keys to trees in summer, 

 based on the leaves with some use of bud, twig and pith charac- 

 ters; in winter, based on twig and bud characters; and to 

 flowers and "other characters present at the time of flowering." 

 This last key will probably be used infrequently, as the others 

 serve the purpose of determining the trees admirably. In the 

 appendix is a brief key to woods. The descriptions of genera 

 and species are concise and complete enough for the purpose 

 for which the book is intended. 



The arrangement of the families and genera follows the 

 Besseyan system as modified by Schaffner. Thus the trees fall 

 in three phyla, the Cycadophyta including only the ginkgo, 

 the Strobilophyta, with the remaining gymnosperms, and the 

 Anthophyta, with all the rest of the trees. Under the last 

 phylum the subclass Amentiferae with the orders Platanales, 

 Urticales, Fagales and Salicales instead of following the conifers, 

 as in the classification used in our common manuals, follows 

 the Sapindales, the order to which the maples belong and is 

 followed by the orders including the dogwoods and viburnums 

 at the end of the series. This arrangement, it is stated in the 

 preface, "will enable one to acquire some idea of the evolution 

 of the higher plants . . . and will also indicate the direction of 

 the general evolutionary movements," which seems to indicate 

 a strictly linear development. 



The names used have been changed in a few cases from those 

 in the third edition and in both editions the names are of- 

 ten at variance with those commonly in use. Quercus rubra 

 is now Q. maxima, while Q. triloba of the earlier edition becomes 

 Q. rubra. In this case the former names are given as synonyms, 

 but in only one or two other cases are synonyms given. The 

 black cherry, commonly known as Prunus serotina, is P. vir- 



1 Field Manual of Trees. John H. Schaffner. R. G. Adams and Co. 160 

 pages. $1.50. 



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