Abstract
THIS comprehensive volume on forest botany, which is essentially on the same lines as the well-known text-books of Döbmer-Nobbe, Hartig, and Schwarz, gives an interesting account of the structure and physiology of forest trees. The introductory chapters are devoted to a general external survey of the tree, note being made of the various forms of buds and shoots, while the influence of their position and development on the habit of trees is clearly indicated. An interesting subject is touched upon in the annual and periodic rate of height-growth, and reference is made to the relationship that exists between the rapidity of growth in youth and the light-requirements of trees. With hardly an exception trees that are intolerant of shading grow with great rapidity when young (larch, birch, &c), and are thus enabled to keep their crowns well above the level of those of competing species. Slow-growing species, on the other hand, are not prejudically affected by moderate shading (silver fir, beech, &c). Were they otherwise they could hardly have survived in the mixed primæval forest, where the struggle for existence proceeded without interference from the woodman's axe.
Bau und Leben unserer Waldbäume
Von Dr. M. Büsgen, Professor an der grossherzoglich sächsischen. Forstlehranstalt in Eisenach. Pp. viii + 230, mit 100, Abbildungen. (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1897.)
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Somerville, W. Our Book Shelf. Nature 57, 126 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/057126a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057126a0