7 o 
Notes on Recent Literature. 
THE SCOTTISH BOTANICAL REVIEW. 
The first number of this new quarterly periodical (with which 
are incorporated the Transactions of the Botanical Society of 
Edinburgh) has recently appeared. It is edited by Mr. M c Taggart 
Cowan, Jr., with the assistance of some well-known authorities in 
floristic and ecological botany : Messrs. William Barclay, Arthur 
Bennett, A. W. Borthwick, R. H. Meldrum, W. G. Smith and James 
Stirton. It contains original memoirs, general articles, reviews and 
notes extending to 56 pages in all. The Review is priced at 2/6 
(annual subscription 7/6), and is published by Neill & Co., Bellevue, 
Edinburgh. The typography is excellent. 
The new Review makes a capital start, and if it maintains its 
standard will prove an exceptionally interesting addition to the 
periodical literature devoted to “ outdoor ” botany. 
The first item is the first instalment of a memoir by Mr. C. B. 
Crampton, of the Geological Survey, on “ The Geological Relations 
of Stable and Migratory Plant Formations.” When complete we 
hope to notice this paper again. It contains some valuable 
criticisms of current conceptions of plant formations and some 
interesting suggestions with regard to their classification. 
Mr. Arthur Bennett writes on “ Aquatic Forms and Aquatic 
Species of the British Flora,” stimulated thereto by the recent visits 
to this country of Dr. Gliick of Heidelberg and Professor Rothert 
of Cracow and by Mr. G. West’s recent work on the Flora of 
Scottish Lochs. 
Dr. Borthwick contributes a very interesting article on “ Some 
Modern Aspects of Applied Botany,” in which he directs attention 
to those aspects of modern scientific botany which have a clear 
practical application, specially instancing ecology, physiology, and 
pathology. He gives numerous instances of the enormous monetary 
losses caused by plant-diseases and the successful efforts which 
have recently been made to combat them. One very remarkable 
instance is that of the disease of the Weymouth Pine ( P. strobus), 
which was introduced into the States with European seedlings of 
the Weymouth or “ White ” Pine, which is an abundant American 
native tree 1 But the Americans are fully alive to the importance 
of organised scientific research on plant-diseases, and of the organi¬ 
sation also of immediate application of preventive measures, when 
these are possible; and they will probably stamp out this particular 
disease. In the case of the chestnut bark disease they have not 
been so fortunate, and this fungus is said to be threatening to destroy 
chestnut cultivation in the States. Our own Government has 
recently taken important steps in the right direction through the 
funds made available by the Development Act of 1909, and we may 
now expect rapid development of the study and prevention of plant- 
disease in this country. 
As regards the practical application of ecology, even in the 
present rudimentary condition of the subject much might be done 
by insisting on the planting of the appropriate species or variety of 
forest tree in place of those which can never succeed under the 
conditions they are called on to support. Dr. Borthwick mentions 
the case of the Scots Pine, which is said to show several well-marked 
