142 



Recent Literature. [_ ZOE 



even taking such slight trouble as to consult the Kew Index — 

 witness his Lotus diffusus. 



The author prophesies that "at the present rate of activity in 

 taxonomic botany, the year 1905 will see 20,000 plant names to 

 be listed." No doubt this will be the case if all the varieties 

 and forms are named and listed, as well as the synonyms and 

 many Mexican plants. As examples of how this can be done, 

 one may take Mentha Canadensis and its synonym Micromeria 

 purpurea; Mimutus atropurpureus and Eunanus Kellogii; Plagio- 

 bothrys rufescens, P. Californicus a?id P. campestris; Trichocoronis 

 Wtightii T. riparia — and twenty-four pages away Biolettia 

 riparia; Pentachczta exilis and P. aphantochceta, etc. These have 

 all been published and admitted synonyms; the author of a 

 check list cannot be expected to know those which have not 

 been as, for instance, Dicranocarpus parviftorus and Wootonia 

 parviftora; Orochcenactis thysanocarpha and Bahia Palmeri. Of 

 the Mexican plants included, one, Hesperelea Palmeti certainly 

 is sufficiently out of the way. 



And after all the striving for "uniformity of treatment" this 

 list, only a few months old, is hopelessly behind the changes in 

 genera and species, which may be taken as a warning to refrain 

 from check lists until American botanists have found their 

 judgment. K. B. 



Flora of Western Middle California, by wiixis liNN jepson, 

 Assistant Professor of Botany in the University of California, 625 

 pages. Issued April 16, 1891. This is the best of the Local 

 Floras which have so far been published in California. It covers 

 practically the same region as Prof. Greene's "Manual of the Bay- 

 Region Botany", but overruns its borders somewhat irregularly, 

 therefore including many more species. The peculiar nomencla- 

 ture which distinguished the work of Prof. Greene has not been 

 adopted for the present work, but some not very desirable vestiges 

 of his untenable generic names appear. 



Much atteution has been given to the keys, which appear to 

 have been carefully worked out, especially the specific ones. 



The author's extensive field studies have resulted, as compared 

 with much recent botanical work, in a very commendable con- 



