voL.Iv.| Writings of Edward L. Greene. 69 
of our shrubs,” is found in every deep, shady ravine of Tamalpais. 
By his two synonyms he has made it sufficiently evident that 
be never saw the red-berried elder, although it grows in 
Wildwood Glen at Sausalito, and is quite common all about 
Marin County. By his own confession he has just seen 
for the first time ripe fruit of a Garrya, although two species 
fruiting abundantly help to make the thickets covering Tamalpais, 
and he has written, as of distant plants, pages in his usual 
didactic style, attempting to convince the world that the black- 
and the amber-fruited forms of Azbes aureum are two distinct 
species, ignorant of the fact that Dr. Kellogg long ago reported 
it as growing in ‘‘ Redwood Cafions, back of Alameda,”’ and that 
it fruits abundantly in both forms in San Antonio Valley, back of 
Mt. Hamilton, and with no more reason for division than /7bes 
spectabilis, which fruits with similar diversity at Point Reyes. 
His descriptions in ‘‘ Flora Franciscana’”’ are usually quoted, 
and the attempts at critical work are of the weakest—as for 
instance where dealing with species well known to him in the 
living state, he calmly inserts into his flora Vicia gigantea and 
its strict synonym Lathyrus cinctus, and Lupinus cervinus with 
its second name Z sericatus. 
But it is when Mr. Greene enters the field of bibliography 
and attempts to fix the dates of genera and species that his work 
stands forth unrivaled. As long as he confines himself to copy- 
ing from the pages of Pritzel, Jackson, etc., and from Watson’s 
Index he is tolerably secure, but when grown bolder he cuts 
himself loose and starts on his wild career alone, then chaos 
comes again. 
Everyone knows that the dates given on the title page of 
many of the botanical books even as late as forty or fifty years 
ago are inaccurate. ‘The importance of exactness was yet little 
felt, and priority was not so much regarded. Between the years 
1830 and 1846 three English works of much importance to our 
flora, were published. These were Flora Boreali-Americana iu 
two volumes, Botany Beechey, and Botany of the Sulphur. 
The first bore on title page the date 1840; the second 1841; and 
the third 1844. The last concerns us at present but little and 
may be dismissed with the statement that it was evidently 
