204 Rhodora [Septbmmb 



of Philadelphia. He sent and carried many living plants to Eng- 

 land for cultivation and was appointed "Queen's Botanist." Mr. 

 Rhoads's task in searching out so thoroughly the history of W. Young 

 has not been an easy one but he has brought together a good account 

 of this man and his work, and while the catalogue is not of great 

 scientific value it has much historical interest.— Mary A. Day. 



A Popular Handbook to the Mosses. — Mrs. Elizabeth M. 

 Dunham in " How to Know the Mosses," l has undertaken to provide 

 a handbook which will not require the use of a lens of any kind. When 

 one considers that a convenient hand-lens costs only $1.50, and that 

 there is already available such a satisfactory book as Dr. Grout's 

 "Mosses with a Hand-lens," it seems to the reviewer doubtful if the 

 task that Mrs. Dunham has attempted is worth while. Her book 

 should be judged, however, by its purpose, which is to enable " people 

 who are content to recognize violets, asters, and goldenrods, without 

 knowing the specific names .... to know the generic names of 

 mosses." The descriptions show that Mrs. Dunham has a good 

 knowledge of the plants with which she is dealing. The illustrations 

 are very simple, but in general they suggest the habit of the moss to 

 one who is already familiar with it; whether they would be suffi- 

 ciently suggestive to a beginner is open to question. Photographs 

 would have been much better but would, of course, have added 

 greatly to the cost of the book. A casual testing of the keys seems 

 to indicate that they work out as well as could be expected. No 

 handbook will eliminate the need of judgment and patience, and 

 equipped with these the possessor of "How to Know the Mosses" 

 will have an opportunity to be introduced to a fascinating group of 

 plants, and, we may hope, will be led on to purchase lens and micro- 

 scope and the more "scientific" books by Dr. Grout. 



Upon opening this book and seeing its thirty pages of non-technical 

 keys, the reviewer was reminded of his first, unaided attempt to 

 learn the mosses nearly twenty years ago. Lesquereux and James's 

 Manual was then the only available book, and the would-be student 

 found no keys except the technical analysis of genera at the begin- 

 ning of the book. After grappling with the heading "capsule sessile 

 on a pedicellate vaginule," he was then confronted by "calyptra 

 mitriform." The moss in hand had no calyptra; no one stood by 

 to say that it was of no consequence; and the attempt to know mosses 

 proceeded no further at that time! Whatever difficulties are co- 

 countered in the use of Mrs. Dunham's book, they will certainly not 

 be due to technicalities. — L. W. II. 



■ Houghton, Mifllin Company, Boston, Mass. 1910. $1.25 net. 



Vol. IS, no. 212, including pages 169 to 184, K*M issued 3 August, 1916. 



