604 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vou. XXXII. 
reforested. The greater part of it is now owned by lumber firms that 
have removed all the merchantable lumber and would now be glad to 
sell it to the state for a merely nominal sum. By properly planting 
this land and policing it (to prevent forest fires), often merely by 
keeping out the fires, the state authorities might readily reforest the 
larger part of it, and thus add greatly to the wealth of the state. 
The Bulletin deals with such ‘topics as topography, soils, climate, 
drainage, ownership, forest fires, changes on cut-over lands, the out- 
look, etc. Each of the more important timber trees is considered by 
itself and there are occasional notes on other vegetation. Since the 
pine lumber has been cut the country is drying out. This is shown 
in many ways, ¢.g., by the disuse of corduroy roads, by the cultivation 
of former swamps, by the lessened flow in rivers, and finally by 
the fact that the hemlock spruce, which covers all the eastern, middle, 
and northeastern part of this great tract, is dying out. Of this 
species no young forests are coming on, and many of the old trees 
are dead at the top. This decadence is attributed to the fact that 
the hemlock has a superficial root-system, and is therefore sensitive 
to changes in the moisture content of the surface soil. That portion 
of the report devoted to forest fires and to the very detrimental 
changes they bring about on cut-over lands is particularly interesting. 
By neglect to reforest these lands it is estimated that the state of 
Wisconsin loses annually 800,000,000 feet board measure of mer- 
chantable lumber. Erwin F. SMITH. 
Porter’s Translation of the ‘‘ Bonn’’ Text-book of Botany. — 
The first German edition of the Lehrbuch der Botanik fiir Hochschulen, 
prepared by Prof. Eduard Strasburger and his colleagues Schimper, 
Noll, and Schenk of the University of Bonn, appeared in 1894. 
The result of a felicitous coöperation upon the part of four able 
specialists working in the same laboratories and under the guidance 
of a master mind, this book immediately took high rank among works 
upon its subject. It has deservedly received much favorable com- 
ment and little adverse criticism. It has passed into its second 
German edition, and is now so generally known on this side of the 
Atlantic, as well as in Europe, that it is needless here to comment upon 
its qualities. The English edition,’ lately prepared by Dr. H. C. 
Porter, Assistant Instructor of Botany at the University of Pennsyl- 
1 A Text-book of Botany. By papae Noll, Schenk, and Schimper. Trans- 
lated from the German by H. C. Porter. Published by the Macmillan Co. 
London and New York, 1898. Play k 50. 
