June 1G, 1905.1 



SCIENCE. 



915 



While this must for centuries be the standard 

 work on our native trees, its bulk and cost 

 preclude its use elsewhere than in the herba- 

 rium, museum or library, and it was impera- 

 tive that the same author should prepare a 

 handy field (or rather, forest) manual which 

 should give to a much larger number of people 

 the opportunity of studying our forest trees. 

 This has now been done in an admirable 

 manner in the Manual which made its ap- 

 pearance some time in March of the present 

 year. 



The book opens with a synopsis of the sixty- 

 one families of plants included, the sequence 

 being that of Engler and Prantl's ' Die Natiir- 

 lichen Pflanzenfamilien,' and this is followed 

 by an analytical key to the families, based on 

 the characters of the leaves. Then follows the 

 descriptive manual proper, in which after a 

 clear and pretty full characterization of each 

 family there is given a conspectus or analytical 

 key to the North American genera. The char- 

 acters of each genus are set forth much more 

 fully than they are in the usual botanical 

 manuals, and a paragraph is usually appended 

 giving geographical, numerical and economic 

 data. A convenient key enables the student to 

 readily find the particular species in which he 

 is interested. 



The specific descriptions leave nothing to be 

 desired, usually including full descriptions of 

 the leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, the tree as a 

 whole, its winter buds, bark and wood, and are 

 followed by concise accounts of their natural 

 geographical distribution, and the extent of 

 their cultivation for ornamental and other pur- 

 poses. With each species is a figure of the 

 characteristic features of the species, usually 

 the foliage, flowers and fruit. By means of 

 these figures alone one can identify nearly 

 every species. 



The book is thus thoroughly satisfactory, 

 and must at once become a standard among 

 systematic manuals. It will appeal to the gen- 

 eral botanist as a distinct and notable contri- 

 bution to the literature of systematic botany, 

 and at the same time it will be recognized by 

 students of forestry as an indispensable hand- 

 book. For the latter, in this day of forestry 

 schools and forestry courses of study in the 



colleges and universities, it is indeed fortunate 

 that this manual has made its appearance. 

 Without it North American dendrology was a 

 most difiicult subject for both professor and 

 student, on account of the scattered and unco- 

 ordinated descriptions in the botanical manu- 

 als — the ' Silva ' being quite too expensive a 

 work for every-day use by students. This 

 difficulty is now wholly removed by the pub- 

 lication of the manual. 



Looking over the families which include 

 North American trees, one finds that the coni- 

 fers number 90 species and varieties ; the palms, 

 10; Liliaceae, 9; the Juglandaceae, 15; Sali- 

 caceae, 32 ; Fagaceae, 52 ; Bosaceae, 169 (of 

 which 132 are species of Crataegus') ; Legu- 

 minosae, 34; Aceraceae, 17; Cornaceae, 8; 

 Ericaceae, 9; Oleaceae, 19. The generic and 

 specific nomenclature is modern, so that one 

 finds Tumion (instead of Torreya), Hicoria 

 (instead of Carya), Toxylon (instead of Mac- 

 lura), Malus (instead of Pyrus), Sassafras 

 sassafras (instead of Sassafras officinale), and 

 Catalpa catalpa (instead of Catalpa hignonio- 

 ides). No attempt is made to cite synonyms, 

 the author evidently assuming that the student 

 might well trust him in the selection of the 

 oldest available name. The author has added 

 a handy glossary of technical terms, and the 

 volume closes with a very full index in which 

 English and Latin names are arranged in a 

 single alphabetical series, thus avoiding the 

 nuisance of two indexes, one for the common 

 and another for the scientific names. 



This book suggests to one that Professor 

 Sargent is the man to give us a similar book 

 devoted to the exotic trees (and probably 

 shrubs also) of which so many are now given 

 in this country. 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 The University of Nebraska. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

 The Journal of Comparative Neurology and 

 Psychology for May contains an article of 

 100 pages, entitled ' The Morphology of the 

 Vertebrate Head from the Viewpoint of the 

 Functional Divisions of the Nervous System,' 

 by J. B. Johnston, of West Virginia Univer- 

 sity. The ' head problems ' have recently re- 



