371 
Reviews. 
An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the 
British Possessions, from Newfoundland to the Parallel of the 
Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean 
Westward to the 1to2d Meridian. By Nathaniel Lord Brit- . 
ton, Ph. D., Emeritus Professor of Botany in Columbia Uni- 
versity, and Director-in-Chief of the New York Botanical 
Garden, and Hon. Addison Brown, President of the Torrey 
Botanical Club. In Three Volumes. Vol. I., Ophioglossaceae 
to Aizoaceae ; Ferns to Carpet-weed. Royal 8vo, pp. 612, New 
York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896. Price per volume, $3.00. 
An entirely distinct epoch in the study of the North American 
flora is marked and, as to its general influence, inaugurated by the 
Publication of this great work. Popularization, but with a dis- 
tinct gain to science ; a more intelligent and natural arrangement 
of groups; the application of broader and more natural principles 
in the delimitation of species; a full and careful consideration of 
distribution ; a rational and just system of nomenclature—these 
are some of the progressive steps which are forcibly and clearly 
brought to mind as we examine the pages of our new flora. 
In comparing new works with old, we are often led to disparage 
the former because of the poorer advantages which were pos- 
Sessed by the authors of the latter. It is, however, quite safe to 
Say that in no preceding work of the kind have the materials at 
hand been more completely utilized, nor has there been a more 
Careful consideration of principles, or a more exhaustive study of 
details. Those American botanists who have prayed for more 
botany and less nomenclature may now give thanks! The first 
Portion of their prayer, at least, is answered. The scope and 
Nature of the work cannot be better stated in brief than by quot- 
ing the opening paragraph of the authors’ introduction : 
“The present work is the first complete Illustrated Flora pub- 
lished in this country. Its aim is to illustrate and describe every 
Species, from the Ferns upward, recognized as distinct by botanists 
and.growing wild within the area adopted, and to complete the 
Work within such moderate limits of size and cost as shall make it 
accessible to the public generally, so that it may serve as an inde- 
