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1915] Book Review 63 
| 
certain degree of independence in his statement that, “This does not 
imply, however, that the writer favors all the generic and specific 
delimitations of that work, nor all the nomenclatorial changes there 
proposed." What a pity that this healthy spirit of scientific freedom 
could not have found fuller expression, at least by a brief note, when- 
ever the author felt sure of his own convictions! In a very few in- 
stances this has been done, as, for example, when Bidens Becki is 
retained in Bidens instead of separated as a genus Megalodonta, as is 
done in the Jilustrated Flora; and when Juncoides (or Luzula) sal- 
tuense (J. carolinae of the Illustrated Flora in great part, not L. caro- 
linae Watson) is pushed back into the European J. pilosum. In 
passing it may be remarked that Megalodonta is a far better genus than 
most of the old sections and subgenera which temporarily parade as 
genera, and that our woodland Luzula is kept distinct from the Euro- 
pean L. pilosa not only in American manuals but by such a learned 
European specialist as the late Franz Buchenau. 
The catalogue of plants is presented in useful and somewhat original 
form, giving a statement of the local occurrence cf the species in each 
state or section of state covered, and a paragraph indicating the occur- 
rence or absence of the plant on certain of the geological formations. 
Broad ranges are also given, substantially as in Britton & Brown, and 
keys copied from that work are included. "This body of information 
is bound to be much referred to by future workers, for it draws to- 
gether a vast amount of material from scattered sources. 
As a final authority on geographic distribution, however, the 
Catalogue would have gained greatly if its author had restricted 
himself less to the dictum of the Jllustrated Flora and had given 
recognition to some interpretations not there included. For example, 
it is difficult to understand, now that the question has been worked 
out, how a student of plant geography can be content to call our 
annual Polygonum glaucum identical with the southern European 
frutescent P. maritimum, or our endemic Plantago decipiens specifi- 
cally identical with the Old World P. maritima. Another unfortunate 
result of accepting unquestioned the evaluations put upon species by 
Britton & Brown and the suppression of strongly marked geographic 
varieties is a great distortion of the geographic truths upon which the 
generalizations of the book are based. The suppression of Scirpus 
Smithii Gray, as a pure synonym of S. debilis Pursh, for example, will 
appeal to no discriminating student of our sedges; and the absolute 
merging of Michaux's Smilax pulverulenta into S. herbacea L., with the 
statement that the aggregate extends eastward to New Brunswick, 
obscures an important fact. S. pulverulenta, sometimes treated as a 
variety but recognized as a distinct species by such a painstaking 
and cautious student as Dr. Witmer Stone, does not occur either in 
New England or New Brunswick. Similarly, the failure to distinguish 
1 See Ruopora, xv. 69-71 (1913). 
