178 Recent Literalure. [ZOE 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
BOTANY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.—A check-list of the Flow- 
eving Plants, Ferns, Marine Alge, etc., known to occur in San 
Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and Los Angeles coun- 
ties, California, and north Baja California, with notes, and descrip- 
tions of many species.—By CHARLES RUSSELL Orcurtr, Editor of 
the West American Scientist, author of the Cactacez, etc. San 
Diego, rgor. 
One occasionally finds local plant. lists which, by their naive ex- 
hibitions of the ignorance, self-complacency or other foibles of 
their authors, afford innocent amusement to the reader. Never 
have we happened upon another list quite so entertaining in this 
way as the one whose unpretentious title is given above. 
It appears to have been printed from a scanty, but varied as- 
sortment of worn type, so that the pages present that grotesque 
mingling of several sorts of intermixed upper and lower case 
characters occasionally seen in the amateur newspapers printed 
by children. The pages, by the ingenious device of giving two 
numbers to each, are made to appear twice as many as they really 
are, especially as they begin at page 42. 
Word-puzzles are scattered freely through the text, and cannot 
fail to interest those fond of enigmas. We quote as an example 
this very easy one: : 
“E syn 363; mb s3t 70. Wpan5:54. Hms5s5o0. Hegr. Fr ek dd 
Perhaps the best joke of all is the great number of species of 
Cactus and bulbous plants ‘‘known,” to Mr. Orcutt, ‘‘to occur’’ 
in Southern California. Of the cactuses, some are noted as oc- 
curring here as ‘‘cuttings only’’—a most remarkable biological 
fact. Concerning others, the mysterious statement is made, 
“None on hand.”’ Perhaps as many as a tenth of the plants 
listed are not known, to less fortunate collectors, as occurring 
within some hundreds of miles of this region. But this exuber- 
ance is neatly balanced by the omission of a great number which 
really do grow here, 
A novel and pleasing feature of this ‘“Botany” is the occa- 
sional report of the market value of certain plants—‘‘30c each; 
2 for 50c’’—probably the most important character, in the 
author’s estimation, by which species are distinguished. We 
miss, with surprise, any quotation on cabbage and tomato plants; 
but this defect, we trust, will be remedied in the “Manual” 
which, it is understood, the author has in preparation—a publi- 
cation which, beyond doubt, will be even funnier than the pres- 
ent one, and tend to extend still further, in the same direction, 
his well-established reputation in botanical circles, S. B. P. 
