VIII PREFACE. 
Part 8 is occupied by a paper entitled “The Allionaceae of the 
United States, with Notes on Mexican Species,” by Paul C. Standley, 
now Assistant Curator in the Division of Plants, National Museum. 
This was elaborated under the direction of Prof. E. O. Wooton, of 
the Agricultural College of New Mexico, while Mr. Standley was 
assistant professor in that institution. It embodies the results both 
of field work and of a study of herbarium material from most of 
the western herbaria, as well as the National Herbarium, and of all 
the literature of the subject. Mr. Standley has aimed at a compre- 
hensive and thorough treatment of the whole group, and has found 
it necessary to establish several new genera and restore others not 
recently accepted. The number of sheets studied belonging to the 
National Herbarium was 1,068. Of the 50 new species here described 
the types of 20 are in the National Herbarium, and others are repre- 
sented here by duplicate types. The illustrations, except Plates 
XXXIV and XXXV, are from drawings made by Mr. Standley 
himself. 
The ninth part contains eleven short papers upon new or note- 
worthy plants. Of these the first ten, one by N. L. Britton and J. N. 
Rose, the others by J. N. Rose, relate to North American plants, 
chiefly Cactaceae and Crassulaceae from desert regions. The last 
paper, by William R. Maxon, contains the description of a new fern 
from China. This species was found in the Henry collection of 
Chinese plants, a set of which is in the National Herbarium. 
The final part is made up of miscellaneous papers, the first three 
being continuations of studies published earlier in this series respec- 
tively on the Cactaceae, Crassulaceae, and Apiaceae, prepared by 
J. N. Rose, in collaboration with Dr. N. L. Britton, of the New York 
Botanical Garden, and Prof. John M. Coulter, of the University of 
Chicago. The last paper, by G. N. Collins, Assistant Botanist in the 
Department of Agriculture, is an account of a remarkable develop- 
ment in maize plants grown in a temperate climate from seed pro- 
duced in the Tropics. It is a suggestive illustration of the effect of 
environmental change. 
J. N. Rose, 
Acting Curator. 
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