BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 



Western Wild Flowers. — Many persons are attracted by the wild 

 flowers which they encounter in their excursions, but do not desire 

 in the least to take up the study of botany. They are, indeed, re- 

 pelled by the manuals which lock up a knowledge of the floras of their 

 several regions, and are unwilling to attempt to master the keys pro- 

 vided to open it to them. For the convenience of these flower-lovers 

 many guides of a less technical character have been provided, especially 

 in recent years, in which the study of nature has received so great an 

 impulse. They vary in value as in scope, and botanists should be glad 

 to find one they can recommend to those who inquire for something 

 they can understand. Such a book is Miss Armstrong's Western Wild 

 Flowers, whose botanical correctness is guaranteed by the collabora- 

 tion of Professor Thornber. 1 The numerous illustrations, in black and 

 white and in color, will be of great assistance to those for whom the 

 book is designed. Its field includes the seven western states from 

 Washington and Idaho to Utah and Arizona, so that the large number 

 of plants described are of necessity but a small part of the flora of that 

 vast and varied region. But the purpose seems to have been to include 

 plants which, by the beauty or unusual structure of their flowers, as 

 well as by their occurrence in places readily visited, are most likely to 

 attract the attention of those who will use the book, and at the same 

 time to present representatives of the various families found in the 

 region covered. Most books of this kind omit all the difficult genera, 

 but in this one only the grasses and the sedges are unincluded. On the 

 whole the selection is judicious, although one is surprised at the absence 

 of some species and at the inclusion of others; but this would certainly 

 be the case whoever made the choice. — S. B. Parish. 



1 Armstrong, Margaret, Field Book of Western Wild Flowers. In collabora- 

 tion with J. J. Thornber, A.M. Figs. 500, pis. in color 48. New York, G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons, 1915 ($2.00). 



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