BOOK NEWS 



Another installment of Jenman's 44 West India and Guiana 

 Ferns " has appeared. It is devoted to Pteris, of which there are 

 thirty-eight species in the region covered. 



Dr. Underwood will soon begin issuing a revision of the ferns 

 of North America as far south as the Isthmus and including the 

 West Indies. It will appear in parts of quarto size, and will prob- 

 ably illustrate all the species not before figured. Many of the 

 drawings for the early numbers have already been made. 



We note with regret that Erythea, after an existence of about 

 seven years, has given up the ghost, leaving the region beyond the 

 Mississippi without a representative among botanical publications. 

 We feel like 44 turning a rule" for The Museum also, which re- 

 cently lost its identity by being merged with an Iowa publication. 



Mr. George E. Davenport is preparing to issue a series of 

 photographs of New England ferns, with descriptive text, for use 

 in the public schools. The photographs are made from herbarium 

 specimens in his own collection and are now ready. The admira- 

 ble idea of arranging closely allied specimens in the same photo- 

 graph where their differences may be easily studied, has been 

 adopted. The text will be issued in parts as rapidiy as possible. 

 Many who are not teachers will be glad of a chance to secure these 

 leaflets, since Mr. Davenport's long experience with ferns renders 

 very pertinent what he has to say concerning them. 



The best book on trees that we have yet seen is fro.n the pen 

 of Harriet L. Keeler and the press of Charles Scri oner's Sons. It 

 is entitled 4 ' Our Native Trees and How to Know Them,"* and 

 describes the trees that occur in the region between the Atlantic 

 ocean and the Rocky mountains and from Canada to the northern 

 boundary of the Southern States. Throughout the book the author 

 seems to have had in mind the fact that even beginners want 

 something more than the mere name of a tree, and has added 

 numerous facts and fancies about each species, derived from vari- 

 ous sources. In this age of botanical book-making without suffi- 

 cient preparation, it is refreshing to find an author with so com- 

 prehensive a knowledge of, and such thorough sympathy with her 

 subject. The botanical descriptions of each species precede the 

 more popular matter, and are arranged under such heads as bark, 



* 44 Our Native Trees and How to Know Them." By Harriet L. Keeler. 

 New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900. 533 pp. $2.00 net. 



