Am.  Joui'.  Pharm. 
June,  1911. 
Book  Revieivs. 
the  Ahieteae,  which  includes  tlie  genus  Pinus  with  its  70  or  80 
species  and  having  the  greatest  geographical  range  of  the  whole 
order,"  is  found  in  the  territory  covered  by  the  authors. 
The  order  of  investigation  has  been  as  follows:  i.  Historical 
botany  of  the  species.  2.  Systematic  descriptions.  3.  Leaves  and 
fruits :  a,  economics ;  b,  anatomy ;  c,  chemistry  of  the  oils.  4. 
Timber :  a,  economics ;  b,  anatomy ;  c,  chemistry  of  its  products ;  d, 
forestry.  5.  Bark :  economies ;  b,  anatomy ;  c,  chemistry  of  its 
products.    6.  Illustrations,  to  aid  in  the  study  of  the  letterpress. 
In  summarizing  their  results  the  authors  state  that  "  botanically 
the  results  of  the  research  were  generically  greater  than  those 
specifically,  for  the  peculiarities  of  structure  were  found  to  be 
quite  characteristic  of,  and  differing  from,  those  of  cognate  genera. 
Chemically  and  economically  they  promise  to  be  of  great  importance 
and  to  open  up  new  fields  of  commercial  enterprise." 
They  reiterate  their  belief  in  taxonomic  work  which  considers 
the  chemical  properties  and  physical  characters  of  the  plant  con- 
stituents along  with  botanical  characters,  and  state  species  so 
founded  give  practically  constant  results,  and  preserve  specific 
characters  throughout  their  geographical  distribution."  On  this 
basis  they  divide  the  species  of  the  large  genera  Callitris  into  three 
groups  and  give  a  table  showing  the  probable  evolution  of  the 
species. 
Several  new  compounds  are  reported  as  present  in  the  Australian 
Coniferales,  but  perhaps  the  most  interesting  discovery  is  that 
of  a  manganese  compound  in  practically  all  of  these  trees,  and 
which  the  authors  believe  is  an  essential  constituent  of  them. 
This  compound  gives  to  the  wood  a  darker  color  and  corresponds 
to  what  has  been  regarded  as     resin  "  by  previous  workers. 
The  illustrations  are  very  numerous  and  very  excellent,  being 
half-tone  reproductions  of  the  living  plants,  photo-micrographs 
and  color  plates  of  microscopic  sections. 
