Books and Current Litekatlki'-. 279 



to the committing of a most pardonable and natural error in 

 giving more extended treatment of the regions best know to 

 him personally than their botanical features warrant. The 

 Maritime Provinces and New England have 29 pages devoted 

 to them, \\ hile the vhole of the magnificent, diversified vegeta- 

 tion of Mexico receives only 30 pages. That this is not due 

 merely to the redundancy of literature relating to the former 

 region as compared with its scarcity for Mexico ,is shown by the 

 covering of 18 pages \\ ith the description of the coastal plain 

 region of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, whereas only 20 

 pages are given to the Great Plains and the same number to the 

 Great Basin and its mountain ranges. Either the editors or 

 the author must also answer for not having given more space 

 to illustrative matter in dealing with a subject which invites 

 liberal illustration and is so greatly illuminated by it. The vol- 

 ume contains a number of excellent illustrations of vegetation, 

 but sufl"ers greatly in this respect by comparison with the recent 

 volumes on Africa. The whole of the West Indies, Central 

 America and Mexico is illustrated by only ten cuts, the Great 

 Plains by three and the Great Basin by not a single one. 



The volumes of Die Vegetation der Erde by Pax,Willkomm 

 and Graebner dealt with small areas, thoroughly known to the 

 author. The volumes on Africa by Engler are the product of 

 his own many years of interest in African vegetation, the co- 

 operation of several of his colleagues and the combined attack 

 upon its flora that has been made by the strong forces of the 

 Berlin Botanical Garden. Americans have only to regret that 

 this continent has been deemed worthy of so small a place in a 

 series which began with such thorough treatment of small but 

 characteristic areas in Europe. Every adverse criticism of any 

 importance which can be made of HarshlDCrger's work gro^^ s 

 out of the immensity of his task, and we can onlv admire the 

 zeal and enthusiasm with which he accepted the invitation of 

 the editors to undertake the treatment of so large an area; at 

 the same time that we prize his volume as a most valuable work, 

 serving at once as the most complete picture of North American 

 vegetation which we possess and as a back -ground for the future 

 woik of American plant geography and for the work of those 



