THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 41 



Anybody who enjoys a good garden will be pleased with this 

 book. It is number 2 of a new "Open Country Series" under 

 the editorship of L. H. Bailey who has himself written the 

 initial volume on "The Ai)ple-tree." Two other volumes, 

 "The Cow" and "Vacation on the Trail" have also appeared. 

 The price of tlie present volume is $1.75. 



Along the western side of India, south of the tropic of 

 Capricorn, there is a stretch of country known as the Bombay 

 Presidency, whose ferns form the subject of an attractive little 

 volume by E. Blatter and J. F. d'Almeida, professors of 

 botany in St. Xavier's College, Bombay. "The Ferns of Bom- 

 bay" is a book designed to advance the study of the ferns in 

 the Presidency by providing means for their identification. 

 In the beginning, the terms used in describing ferns are de- 

 fined, and the distribution of the different species discussed. 

 The bulk of the book, more than 200 pages, is devoted to 

 technical descriptions of the species. There is a synopsis of 

 the genera and various keys to the species, but this feature is 

 not as conspicuous as it might be. Owing to the great divers- 

 ity of surface, the rainfall of Bombay is very uneven. Some 

 portions are so arid as to approach desert conditions, while 

 others are moist enough to support an evergreen rain-forest. 

 There are however, fewer than a hundred species of ferns 

 known. In spite of the great distance that separates us from 

 Bombay, we note a number of familiar species in its flora. 

 Among these are the bracken {Pteris aquilina), the lady fern 

 (Aspleniuni filix-foemina) , the adders tongue (Opliioglosstim 

 vulgare), the rattlesnake fern {Botrychium Virginianum), 

 the venus'-hair fern {Adiantum capillus-veneris), the royal 

 fern (Osmunda regalis) . the marsh fern (Nephrodium the- 

 lypteris), and the holly fern (Polystichum aculeatum) . Many 

 others are common in the American tropics including Pteris 



