160 



nishcd by its contributors. Each individual record has been 

 searclied and verified previous to acceptation, and we imagine 

 tliat there are but k\v of the contributors who have not been set 

 right at least once ! The rigidity with which specimens have 

 been demanded in confirmation of notes has not alwavs tended 

 to the convenience of collectors, but it has excluded not a few 

 errors from the result. Those who have become acquainted with 

 this element of the author's work, and who have had opportuni- 

 ties for observing the careful scrutiny which has attended each 

 detail, will not fail to repose great confidence in the accuracy of 

 the observations which have been admitted to record. 



Nor is this all. The author has not even contented himself 

 with accepting the classifications— much less the names— of tli 

 works commonly recognized as authoritative, but has made ex- 

 haustive special_ studies, and incidentally contributed such impor- 

 tant revisions as those of Tissa, Hicoria, Lecliea, ElcocJiaris and 

 Cyperus. And from all this has resulted a work which does not 

 deserve to rank with the ordinary local plant catalogues. It con- 

 stitutes the most -important embodiment yet published, of 

 principles which are receiving the attentive consideration by 

 the present generation of botanists. Few of us will need to 

 examine its pages to learn what rules of authority and citation 

 have been followed ; but there are also few of us who will not be 

 surprised upon more than one occasion as we use the book, to 

 note the necessities which have arisen for the correction of lon<T 

 accepted errors. It will take us some time to become accustomed 

 to all the names, but we are happy in believing that very few will 

 be ungracious enough to decline to profit by the results of ten 

 years of such faithfiil labor as Dr. Britton has generously bestowed 

 upon his task. To these authentic names are appended, in paren- 

 theses, those which are superseded, and the latter also appear in 

 italics in the index. 



The author's ideas concerning the use of the term " forma," 

 set forth in the last number of the BULLETIN, will perhaps meet 

 with some disfavor, but the question can hardly extend to the 

 advisability of discriminating between forms and varieties, but 

 only to the application of formal names. That the careful dis- 

 crimination between these two classes of variations is a work that 



