Books and Current Literature. 



Ill 



Students of distribution are under obligation to the author 

 for detailed information regarding the local range, vertical and 

 horizontal, by states and other geographical subdivisions, in 

 the region occupied by each species. This no doubt was collated 

 very largely with reference to commercial use, but it meets 

 admirably a want that has never before been provided for, ex- 

 cept by tedious consultation of herbaria and scattering books 

 inaccessible for the most part except to the favored few. The 

 notes on climatic requirements, tolerance and reproduction, add 

 greatly to the value of the work, not only to those who may 

 use them for practical purposes but also to students of ecological 

 relations. The author deserves the thanks alike of foresters, 

 lumbermen, botanists and all others who want to know about 

 trees in plain and comprehensible language. The remaining vol- 

 umes will be looked for with interest and with the expectation 

 of similar judicious treatment. 



The Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1908 is worthy of 

 more than passing notice. The undertakings of this branch 

 of the public service are avowedly practical, and it has, without 

 doubt, done more than any other agency to further the interests 

 of agriculture and horticulture in the United States. It is, none 

 the less, a great scientific establishment, in which are employed 

 nearly a thousand persons, including many trained investigators, 

 who are daily bringing to their work the latest methods and the 

 most conscientious effort in the several lines in which they are 

 engaged. The outcome of all this for a single year is very briefly 

 set forth in the present report, from which a few items of special 

 interest are selected for notice. 



The investigations in dry-land arboriculture have for their 

 object the discovery of deep-rooted or otherwise drought-resist- 

 ant trees capable of yielding crops without irrigation. From 

 observations at Casa Grande, Arizona, it appears that olive 

 trees growing without irrigation in a locality of very limited 

 preci itation have developed a finely branched root system, 

 which completely occupies the surface la vers of soil over a large 

 area, rea y to appropriate moisture from even the lightest rain- 



