THE PLANT WORLD 209 



so designated by common people. Britton and Brown, in the " Illus- 

 trated Flora," class most of them as "bergamot," which is really the 

 most generally accepted of any by the people, yet excluding Monarda 

 didyma, which of all in gardens is known as the bergamot plant. How- 

 ever, the term bergamot is applied in some form or another to most of 

 the species, though, as in the one now illustrated, the peculiar scent im- 

 plied by the name is confined to but a few. Bergamot, in pharmacy, is 

 obtained from the rind of a species of the lemon family, and is known as 

 the oil of bergamot. This odor is especially characteristic of Monarda 

 didijm a. — 3Ieehan 's Monthly. 



In the old time, bold and forceful men delighted to be known as 

 countrymen, saj^s Country Life in America. The great cities had not yet 

 arisen. Great commercial opportunities were few. Men lived on their 

 estates, and they built generously and broadly. Their places were 

 homes in the best and truest sense, with which the very life and wel- 

 fare of the family were interwoven, not mere summer houses built as 

 adjuncts to city Hfe. Often these men went into the very wilderness, 

 " took up " many acres along water-courses or on lakes, and established 

 places that marked the highest intellectual and social attainments of the 

 region, and which to this day remain as land-marks. If the family was 

 one of culture and means, a home-garden was a part of the establish- 

 ment. Often this garden was more than a place in which merely to 

 groM^ vegetables and pleasant flowers. It was an entity, wholly aside 

 from the plants that it grew. It was laid out as a permanent feature, 

 and usually with such a half pretense of formality as to insure respect 

 on the part of the beholder. Buildings could be moved and repaired, 

 but the garden was inviolate. 



Notes of Current Literature. 



Two contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University 

 have recently been published, one on the flora of the Galapagos Islands, 

 by Dr. B. L. Bobinson, and the other a discussion of the European white 

 birch {Behda alba) and its allies, by Mr. Merritt L. Fernald. Dr. Robin- 

 son's work, which is the form of an annoted list, is a carefully executed 

 and most admirable treatise. It contains a very large amount of inter- 

 esting reading matter in addition to the flora proper, including discus- 

 sions of the topographical and physiographical features of each island 

 in the group ; of the various plant formations ; and of the endemic plants. 

 There is also a comparison with the flora of the adjacent mainland, 



