350 



REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 



Trees : A Handbook of Forest-botany for the Woodlands and 

 the Laboratory. By H. Marshall Ward, Sc.D., F.R.S. Vol. I. 

 Buds and Twigs. Pages xi. +271, illustrated. 4s. 6d. net. University 

 Press, Cambridge. 



This is the latest addition to the excellent Cambridge Natural Science 

 Manuals, and is the first of a projected series of volumes to provide 

 students of forest botany with a guide to the study of trees and shrubs 

 from the point of view of the outdoor naturalist. Succeeding- parts will deal 

 with leaves, inflorescences, flowers, fruits, seeds and seedlings, and the 

 habit and conformation of the tree as a whole. If this scheme is carried 

 through in the detailed manner of the present volume w^e are likely to 

 be in possession of a work on British trees and shrubs hitherto quite 

 unequalled. The method of treatment is similar to that adopted by the 

 author in his work on Grasses, and consists of two parts, General and 

 Special. In the first part Prof. Marshall Ward has brought together an 

 immense number of facts relating to buds and twigs not only of British 

 trees but of many of the more generally cultivated exotic species. The 

 book will serve as an excellent guide to all who wish to become familiar 

 with the winter aspect of these plants, and thus fills a gap in our literature. 

 Naturalists, teachers, and students are too apt to neglect plants at this 

 season, which is often regarded as dead and devoid of interest. Prof. Ward 

 shows in this volume how much may be done. The chapter on the 

 Epidermis (pp. 81-93) strikes us as somewhat out of place. In these 

 thirteen pages references to trees are very scanty indeed, and nothing is 

 said about the many interesting epidermal outgrowths and devices to be 

 met with on several common species. We presume, however, these will be 

 dealt with in the next volume on Leaves, but why devote so much space to 

 hairs, etc., on the leaves of herbaceous plants in a work on Trees? The 

 only excuse seems to be the four excellent blocks from 'Kerner,' around 

 which the chapter has been written. 



Part II. deals with the classification of trees and shrubs according to 

 characters afforded by their buds and twigs. The value of this section is 

 greatly enhanced by the very numerous illustrations specially drawn by 

 Miss Dawson. These are very characteristic and will be a great help in 

 the identification of specimens. Throughout, the book is w^ell illustrated, 

 and will be invaluable to all interested in trees and shrubs. 



The Lepidoptera of the British Islands. Vol. IX. C. Q. 

 Barrett, F.E.S. 



We have received Vol. IX. of this gigantic work, which comprises the 

 concluding portion of the Geometrina, the whole of the Pyralidina, the 

 Pterophorina, and part of the Crambina. The first-mentioned group 

 includes the genera Mesotype , Eiiholia, Collix, Eupithecia, Tanagra, and 

 Aplasia. Little more need be said than that the volume maintains the high 

 standard of its predecessors ; and the histories of the species, especially in 

 the large genus Eupithecia^ and the smaller but, to a beginner, equally 

 puzzling- genus Scoparia, together with the monograph on the Pterophorina, 

 will be most acceptable and valuable to students of these groups. Taken 

 as a whole, too, the plates are very good, though here and there, as is 

 almost inevitable among so many figures, one notices one to which excep- 

 tion may justly be taken. It is a pity that in the superior edition a direct 

 reference to the plates is not given in the text ; but as the other edition 

 does not contain plates, that would have entailed two separate printings, 

 which no doubt has been the difficulty in its application. We may mention 

 that the volume contains, on Plate 424, a figure of the specimen of 

 Xylophasia zollikoferi taken by Mr. Ashton Lofthouse at Middlesbrough 

 last year (see 'The Naturalist,' 1903, p. 456), — G, T, P. 



Naturalist, 



