365 
fallen furnishes an effective illustration of the utility of latter- 
day practice. The descriptions are the most detailed and 
lengthy in the volume, perhaps the least technical. It is evident 
that the author’s aim has been not alone to set down the species 
in formal terms, but to effect in the mind of the intent student 
some realization of the individuality of the particular species dis- 
cussed. There is here an escape from the trammels of the labeled 
sheet to the presence of the living plant, and it is refreshing to 
find species kept distinct Jdecause they are so, even though the 
herbarium may appear to deny it. Professor Bailey knows his 
species and his own convictions help to carry their realizations 
into the minds of others. 
It must not be understood that here alone in the work facts are 
held to be paramount to mellowed dicta concerning facts. Else- 
where there is, indeed, a certain inertia of opinion shown here and 
there which is perhaps justly censurable in some such termsas these. 
But the progressive spirit, if sometimes dormant, shows itself to 
be only napping after all and quite capable of an energetic awaken- 
ing as, for instance, in the case of the genus Spergularia, here tena- 
ciously so called. Whatever sacrifice of consistency is involved 
in the treatment of this group will be criticised by no one view- 
ing the result, which is well and logically worked out. No con- 
sensus of opinion will support the author’s implied view that the 
genus represents scarcely more than a single polymorphous 
species. But this point of view, however oblique, has not been 
allowed to interfere with a direct and essentially true rendering of 
the facts. Fourteen species and major varieties are admitted and 
several minor varieties indicated. Nevertheless it is probably not 
too much to say that the group will have to be still further en- 
larged, and that some of the more obscure of the “ oft-recurring 
forms,” to use Dr. Robinson’s apt phrase, will some day define 
themselves to us in clearer outlines. It is not probable, for in- 
Stance, that Professor Greene’s species and subspecies have so little © 
power of resistance that they will consent to remain with their 
faces to the wall as several of them in this genus here find them- 
selves placed. 
In connection with the publication of this work should be 
noted the almost coincident appearance of the second volume of 
