472 
apolis. Since the first introduction of a few straggling specimens, 
the plant has spread so as to become a nuisance in the elevator 
districts on the outskirts of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Specimens 
have been found also in several other localities in Hennepin, Ram- 
sey and Dakota counties. EpmunD P. SHELDON. 
MInneEaApoLis, Minn., Nov. 12, 1895. 
I found this plant in considerable quantities along the railroad 
at Port Arthur, Lake Superior, in September, 1889. We also 
have a specimen of it collected at Danville, Quebec, in 1894. 
N. L. Britton. 
Reviews, 
Synoptical Flora of North America: Vol. 1. Part I. Fascicle 
I. Polypetalae from the Ranunculaceae to the Frankeniaceae. 
By Asa Gray, LL. D., and Sereno Watson, Ph. D., continued and 
edited by Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, Ph. D. (Issued October 
10, 1895.) 
The second volume of this work was published some years since, 
in two parts, the first part appearing in the year 1884, while 
the second was issued in 1878. In 1886a revised edition of these 
two parts with an appendix of additions and corrections was issued 
by the Smithsonian Institution. The first fascicle of part I., volume 
I., has now been issued from the University press at Cambridge 
after a lapse of eleven years. Dr. Robinson is to be congratulated 
on the completion of the pages under consideration and we are 
promised a second fascicle in the near future. The bulk of the 
matter was written by Dr. Gray; Dr. Watson subsequently 
took up the work and continued it until his death; since then Dr. 
Robinson has completed parts left unfinished by the other authors, 
besides editing their manuscripts by bringing together facts of 
recent discovery, mostly in the form of foot-notes. 
The pages contain a vast amount of useful and valuable informa- 
tion and the book will be welcomed by everyone. Together with 
the many good qualities of this issue appear the same faults that 
characterize the second volume. After a general key to the 
families, the Ranunculaceae are taken up, and other families fol- 
