211 
rated in the text, so that students will no longer need to search for 
a given species under two distinct headings. 
In the style of presentation and in nomenclature, Dr. Chap- 
man adheres closely to old traditions, preferring group-characters 
interspersed through the specific descriptions rather than artificial 
keys placed at the commencement of a genus, the usage in most 
modern systematic works. The disadvantage of the former 
method is the difficulty which the eye encounters in correlating 
two or more headings when confused by an intricate maze of dag- 
gers and asterisks. Yet the task of constructing systematic keys 
where none had previously existed would have been too great a 
labor to undertake in a work intended primarily as a revision. © 
Neither could Dr. Chapman be expected to undertake the bibli- 
ographical research necessary to place the nomenclature of his 
_ flora on a modern basis. But it is to be regretted that he did not 
see fit to make such corrections as recent studies have shown to be 
_ €ssential, such as the substitution of Anemone quinguefolia L. for 
the European A. nemorosa, and of Viola tenella Muhl., for V. 
‘ncolor var. arvensis DC. Many of these changes were made 
€ven in the first fascicle of Gray’s Synoptical Flora, issued last year, 
and thus certainly bear the stamp of conservative authority. 
The lack of all system in the employment of citations is, as it 
has always been, a defect in this work. Botanical bibliography has 
now assumed such enormous proportions that full citations should 
be given wherever possible ; and in a manual in which space does 
not permit the practice, careful attention should be bestowed on 
the verification of references. Dr. Chapman indicates new species 
for the most part by an appended “ . s.,” but occasionally these 
Teceive no indication whatever, as in Eupatorium incisum, requit- 
ing an inspection of all the other editions to ascertain that the 
plant is here described for the first time. The absence of an 
authority in general signifies a new name given to an old species, 
as ‘ Viburnum molle Michx., var.? tomentosum,’” the synonym 
cited being “ V, scabrellum Flora,” and the reader being left to — 
infer that the « Flora” mentioned is an earlier edition of the same 
work, and not the name of a botanist. “ 
In his earlier writings Dr. Chapman was inclined to ge more — 
liberal than his contemporaries with regard to age binisatiqnts: s 
