45 
Plant analysis, in the sense of tracing the name by means of 
an artificial key, is not included, but the student who has gone 
through with the work laid out will be able to use Gray’s Manual 
with perfect ease, and in most cases will know the order of a 
plant even without its use. There are several chapters which give 
a slight insight into the cryptogamic orders. In order to follow 
them all the compound microscope will be needed. 
The book is not intended to supplant but to supplement others. 
On nearly every page the student is referred to other text-books, 
and it will be impossible for him to carry out the author’s design 
without a knowledge of Gray’s Lessons and some acquaintance 
with Darwin and Miiller. If it can be adopted in our high schools 
it will give new life to the beginning of botanical study. The prin- 
cipal drawbacks to its use will be in finding high school teachers 
who are capable of carrying it out, and schools that are able and 
willing to incur the expense of fitting up a laboratory. E. A. S. 
Botany of the Death Valley Expedition —A Report on the Botany of 
the Expedition sent out in 1891 by the United States Department 
of Agriculture to make a Biological Survey of the region of Death 
Valley, California. Frederick Vernon Coville. (Contrib. U.S. 
Nat. Herb. Vol. 4, 318 pages, 21 plates and a map. Wash- 
ington, 1893). 
“In 1886 and subsequent years appropriation was made by 
Congress for a study of the geographic distribution of animals, to 
be conducted by the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, 
United States Department of Agriculture. In the year 1890 the 
Scope of the work was enlarged by act of Congress so as to in- 
clude the distribution of plants as well as animals, and in accord- 
ance with this provision the writer was temporarily detailed from 
the Division of Botany as botanist of the Death Valley Expedition, 
the first of the biological surveys under the new act.” 
The foregoing extract from Mr. Coville’s preface indicates the 
origin of the fine piece of work now so successfully accomplished. 
The subject-matter is presented under the following heads: (1.) 
Itinerary. (2,) Principles of plant distribution. (3.) Distribution 
of plants in Southeastern California. (4.) Characteristics and 
adaptations of the desert flora. (5.) Catalogue of species. o 
(6.) Catalogue of specimens. (7.) Bibliography. The principles ; 
