13 MARCH 1915, Page 23

David Douglas was well known as an exploring botanist, and

made two journeys to North America in the course of the years 1823-1827 on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society. The Journal kept by him during his travels is now after nearly a century published for the first time under the direction of the Society (William Wesley and Son, 21s. net). Much of the material will be found of interest to botanists and horti- culturists, especially a detailed catalogue of thirty-three species of American oaks. The volume also contains a short memoir of Douglas, and an extraordinary account by two missionaries of his tragic death in a trap for catching wild cattle on the island of Hawaii.