Text - Book of the Diseases of Trees. By Professor R. Hartig.
Translated by William Somerville. Revised and edited, with Preface, by H. Marshall Ward. (Macmillan and Co.)—The present work was written from the point of view of German forestry. but is, of course, in large measure applicable to England as well. It is divided into four sections,—injuries in- duced by plants, wounds (among which defoliation by insects is included), diseases due to conditions of soil, and injuries due to atmospheric influences and fire. The first section is by far the largest and most important, and we are surprised to find so little attention paid to the injuries and diseases produced in trees by the attacks of animals, especially insects, mites, centipedes, &c. This may be due to the existence of the classical work of Ratza- burg, on forest insects, and others of a later date ; but we think that special attention should have been called, on the title- page or in the preface, to the limited scope of Dr. Hartig's work.
We are pleased, however, to find a special section treating of the destruction of structural timber by fungi, a most im- portant subject, but one which might have been considered hardly within the scope of a book dealing mainly with the diseases of living trees. The work is handsomely printed and illustrated with numerous woodcuts, and contains a classified list of the dis- eases mentioned, arranged under the various plants attacked. There is also a good general index. We think that this book ought to prove of much value to foresters, timber-merchants, and others interested in the subject.
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