TO those who worked in close contact with the late Prof. H. R. Briton-Jones, professor of mycology in the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, the keen interest which he invariably displayed in attempting to make scientific investigations of direct use to the planter, and his sympathy towards the practical and economic difficulties by which the tropical agriculturist is so frequently beset, are common knowledge. This attitude is implicit in the work now under review. Its object, clearly stated in the preface, is “… to give those growers who have not had the advantage of a scientific training, and those agricultural officers who, through pressure of work in other directions or lack of library facilities, are unable to keep up with modern scientific literature, an account of the diseases of the tall coconut palm in simple English, with, it is hoped, a sympathetic understanding of the practicable limits of labour intelligence and the monetary unit in crop production under tropical conditions”. On this basis the book must be judged. It may be said at once that in respect of directness and simplicity of presentation and choice of illustration the author has succeeded in no small measure. The Diseases of the Coconut Palm By Prof. H. R. Briton-Jones. Revised by Prof. Ernest Entwistle Cheesman. Pp. xvi + 176 + 37 plates. (London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 1940.) 10s. 6d.