24 Rhodora [January 



The paper is unique in recent American literature in dealing so 

 exhaustively with a large and complicated group of plants chiefly of 

 Old World distribution. The specific delimitation of our New Eng- 

 land species is but litde modified by Mr. Rehder's treatment, although 

 there are some necessary nomenclatorial changes from the usage of 

 Gray's Manual, thus Z. ciliata, Muhl., is made to give way to the earlier 

 L. cafiadensis. Marsh., and L. glauca. Hill, to L. dioica, L. The paper 

 is illustrated by twenty plates. Although it was not found practicable 

 to publish specific descriptions in the synopsis, the running keys are 

 so complete that the lack of the characterizations will scarcely be felt. 

 Throughout the work is critical and scholarly. 



Mr. Alexander Wallace has just published an attractive and read- 

 able book on the heather.* Although dealing primarily with the folk- 

 lore and romance of his subject the author has taken great pains to 

 bring together the existing scientific records of the habits and distri- 

 bution of the heather both in Europe and America. Among many 

 pleasing illustrations there is an excellent portrait of Boston's distin- 

 guished horticulturist, Mr. Jackson Dawson, and a reproduction of 

 "Vanity Fair's cartoon of the Flower Committee of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society searching for the Heather at Tewksbury," — fea- 

 tures which alone are worth the price of the book. 



The most gigantic enterprise in recent systematic botany, the Pflan- 

 zenreich, a collaborative work being prepared under the energetic 

 editorship of Professor Engler and designed to include specific as well 

 as generic descriptions of all known plants, is making excellent pro- 

 gress. The latest issues include monographic treatments of the 

 Scheuchzeriaceae^ Alismataceae, and Butomaceae all by Professor Franz 

 Buchenau, the Lythraceae by Professor E. Koehne, and Taxaceae by 

 Dr. R. Pilger. 



Mr. Theodor Holm has published in the Ottawa Naturalist, xvii. 

 149-160, some well illustrated Biological Notes on Canadian Species 

 of Viola, a paper which will be found interesting by New England 

 students of the genus. Mr. Holm groups the species according to 

 peculiarities of the rhizone. 



'The heather in Lore, Lyric and Lay, by Alexander Wallace, editor of the Flor- 

 ist's Exchange. New York, De la Mare Publishing Co. 8vo, 245 pp. 



Vol. J, no. do, includi7ig pages 2S1 to fo<V, flute 4g, and title page of volume 

 5, xvas issued December J2, JQOJ. 



