THE PLANT WORLD 79 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



Flora of Western Middle California. By Willis Linn Jepson, Ph. D., 



Assistant Professor of Botany in the University of California. 



12mo, paper, 625 pp. The Encina Publishing Co., Berkely, Cal. 



Price $2.50 postpaid. 



In this compact book Professor Jepson offers to the botanical jmb- 

 lic an excellent working manual of the region indicated by its title. 

 This portion of the State has not been altogether neglected in the past, 

 for in addition to Dr. Behr's Flora of the vicinity of San Francisco, we 

 have Professor Greene's Manual of the Bay Region, and his Flora Fran- 

 ciscana, both of which are very exhaustive in their treatment. But the 

 volume at hand is somewhat more extensive in its scope, and on ac- 

 count of the extra-limital species frequently included, will be, according 

 to the author's statement, " almost if not quite as useful as far north as 

 Red Bluff and as far south as Bakersfield." 



The best feature of Dr. -Jepson's flora is to be found in the descrip- 

 tions, which are very accurately drawn, in most cases from li%T[ng mate- 

 rial. Probably no State has jdelded more noveltius since the publica- 

 tion of the botany of the State Survey many years ago; and it is grat- 

 ifying to note that Dr. Jepson is not altogether hampered by consei'S'a- 

 tive tenets in his recognition of species and genera. The nomenclature 

 seems to be impartially divided between both the old school and the 

 new; we note, for instance, that Tnmion has been taken np for Torreya, 



while on a closely succeeding page Hierochloe is retained instead of 

 Savastana, which antedates it. The double author-citation is used 

 throughout. The tyi)ography and general arrangement of the book is 

 excellent, although j^rinted on rather inferior paper. It may be com- 

 mended unreservedly, we think, to students desiring a good working 

 manual of the region covered. — C. L. P. 



Royal Gardens, Kew; Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information; Additi- 

 onal Series IV; List of Published Names of Plants Introduced to 

 Cultivation, 1876 to 1896. 



Some of the most useful books are often hidden from investigators 

 because of the elaborate and official character of their titles. Such 

 titles do not stick in the memory, and the books are hard to find in a 

 library catalogue. A recent work of this kind labors under the above 

 title. This is a book of 410 pages, containing the names of 7,600 plants 

 intioduced into cultivation during the 21 years ending 1896. Brief de- 

 scriptions are given, including the nativity. It is especially valuable 

 for its reference to pictures and to the descriptions, which are usually 

 the original ones. In compiling this index, 63 publications have been 

 consulted, including the standard horticultural xniblications and a num- 



