30 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Most interesting and astonishing is the account of the partner- 

 ship of a lichen and an alga, each assisting the life of the other — 

 an alliance which, were it not scientifically established, would 

 seem no less impossible than that which, according to Waterton, 

 is said once to have been found between the cormorant, the bat, 

 and the bramble, and which affords one example more of the 

 marvels beyond the fancies of fabulists which occur unsuspected 

 in Nature on every hand. -r p 



British Trees, inchiding tJie finer Skruhsfor Garden and Woodland. 

 By the late Eev. C. A. Johns, B.A., F.L.S. Edited by 

 E. T. Cook & W. Dallimore. With 56 full-page plates 

 (24 coloured) and 41 text illustrations. 8vo, cl. pp. xvi, 285. 

 London : Routledge (no date). Price 7s. Qid. net. 



It is no small tribute to the value of the work of 0. A. Johns 

 that, after the lapse of more than half a century, it should still 

 be worth reprinting. His Floioers of the Field, which first 

 appeared in 1853, is still, in the enlarged and upTto-date version 

 edited by Mr. Boulger (which must not be confused with the very 

 inferior one with which the name of Clarence Elliott is associated), 

 one of the most useful introductions to British botany; and 

 although we have now other books on British trees, the volume 

 before us which has Johns's Forest Trees of Britain for its basis 

 is in some respects the most comprehensive and generally inte- 

 resting in its treatment of the subject. 



The editors tell us in their preface that they " have preserved 

 as far as possible the character of the work," but the " tremen- 

 dous (!) change " which " has taken place in our gardens " has in- 

 duced them to add descriptions of garden shrubs ; this somewhat 

 alters the scope of the original work, though increasing its interest 

 and general usefulness. They have not greatly modified the text 

 relating to trees, which remains practically as Johns wrote it, but 

 occasional notes are intercalated which help to bring it up to date. 



The numerous illustrations will no doubt add to the popularity 

 of the volume, but truth compels us to say that they are not 

 among the best of their kind. The coloured ones are often crude 

 and by no means characteristic ; the subjects of the page process- 

 blocks are in some cases ill-chosen, and some — e. g. the Chili Pine 

 — seem to have no connection with the text and are not, so far as 

 we have seen or as the index informs us, mentioned in the book. 

 This, by the way, is also the case with some of the coloured plates 

 — e.g. Lihocedrus decurrens, which faces an account of the Willows 

 and does not appear in the text. The " text illustrations " are a 

 scratch lot, derived from various sources, but all old friends. The 

 book is nicely printed and handsomely bound, and would form a 

 suitable school prize. 



One point calls for criticism : neither the title-page nor the 

 preface is dated. The title on the title-page differs from that on 

 the cover, and neither corresponds with that on the first page of 

 the text ! 



