Books and Current Literature. 253 



In recent numbers of the Boletin del Comite Regional del 

 Estado de Durango, Prof. Isaac Ochoterena has published an 

 account of the " Botanico-Geographical Regions of the State of 

 Durango." The territory in question may be divided funda- 

 mentally into dry plains and valleys and moist mountain and 

 upland regions. The physiographical features of the former are 

 discussed in some detail, and a carefully prepared list is given 

 of the principal phanerogams growing wild and in cultivation. 



In the same journal Carlos Patoni presents a paper on the 

 "Distribution of the Cactaceae in the State of Durango." This 

 southward extension of more definite knowledge of a region re- 

 garding W'hich our understanding of physiographical and dis- 

 tributional relations has been too limited will be welcomed by 

 botanists of the United States. 



The retiring address of C. V. Piper, as President of the 

 Botanical Society of Washington, on "Botany in its Relations 

 to Agricultural Advancement" presents many thoughts worthy 

 of careful consideration. The difficulty of condensation of what 

 is already so admirably stated justifies the direct reproduction of 

 some of the most striking passages. 



"The very baffling nature of the problems presented (those 

 regarding the origin of varieties of cultivated plants), instead of 

 attracting students, seems to repel them. Systematic botanists 

 have looked upon cultivated plant varieties as artificial products, 

 • useful, no doubt, but utterly subversive to notions of classification 

 obtained from plants in their natural habitats. * * * 

 The natural result of this has been that the systematic botany 

 of cultivated plants is in woeful confusion, and as a consequence 

 of this neglect by botanists, the great mass of information we have 

 concerning any cultivated plant is largely the work of men of 

 little or no botanical training. * * * There has been 

 placed on record a mass of misinformation regarding many 

 varieties. In my opinion, at least fifty per cent of the varieties 

 that have been published upon are either untrue to name or 

 unidentifiable. The task (a comprehensive study of the whole 

 botany of our principal crop plants) is by no means an easy one. 

 In the first place the number of varieties in all our crop plants 

 is far greater than has commonly been realized. For example, 

 there are about 2,000 varieties of wheat, 1,000 of beans, 5,000 of 



