C8 



learners in schools and collegeSj the increase hi bulk, caused by 

 the extension of its area and scope, Is a disappohitment and a 

 drawback, A narrower field, condensation and Linnsean brevity 

 in description and larger print would have been far better, or 

 else, a division into two volumes, or, perhaps, three. 



But the book is marred by defects of a more serious charac- 

 ter, and one of these relates to the geographical distribution of the 

 rarer species. In a majority of cases their range is either incor- 

 rectly, or only partially indicated. The preface, tells us that 

 "all known available sources of information have been made 

 use of/' If so, the word '* available" must have a covert mean- 



ing. 



J 



Pennsylvania are, no doubt, in the botanical library at Cam- 

 bridge : Britton's Catalogue of the Plants of N. J., i88i ; Por- 

 ter's Sketch of the Botany of Penn, (with map) in WalHng and 

 Gray's Topographical Atlas, 1872; Sargent's Forest Trees in 

 Tenth Census Reports, 1884; Dudley's List of the Plants of the 

 Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys, Penn., 1887; Porter's List 

 of the Carices of Penn., 1887 — and various local catalogues and 

 articles in the Botanical Gazette and the BULLETIN. More- 

 over, a multitude of plants from this very tabooed region are 

 extant in the Harvard Herbarium, with labels, showing dates 

 and places of "collection, plants contributed during a long series 

 of years and often accompanied by what Dr. Gray was wont to 

 call *' useful notes." Why these "sources of information " were 

 not ** available" maybe guessed at. To prove gross neglect, 

 to say the least, on the part of the revisers, corrections are here 

 added for the range of sixty such species, and a like thing might 

 be done for as many more. 



jfeffersonia diphylla, Pers. ** W. N. Y. to Wise, and north- 

 ward." From Central Pa. westward. 

 Arabis perfoliata^ Lam. *'From N. E. to Minn, and westward." 



It occurs In N. J. and E. Pa. 

 Thelypodimn pinnatifidiim , Wats. ** O, to Minn." It should be 



W. Pa. and 0. to Minn. 

 Polanisia graveolenSy Raf ''Conn, and W. Vt. to Minn." Com- 

 mon along the shores of the Susquehanna down to Chesa- 

 peake Bay. ^i-^ ^ -w <.v yv^ ^ *^ 9>aX'- 



