VOL. IV.] Writings of Edward L. Greene. 69 



of our shrubs," is found in every deep, shady ravine of Tamalpais. 

 By his two synonyms he has made it sufficiently evident that 

 he never saw the red-berried elder, although it grows in 

 Wildwood Glen at Sausalito, and is quite common all about 

 Marin County. By his own confession he has just seen 

 for the first time ripe fruit of a Garrya, although two species 

 fruiting abundantly help to make the thickets covering Tamalpais, 

 and he has written, as of distant plants, pages in his usual 

 didactic style, attempting to convince the world that the black- 

 and the amber-fruited forms of Ribes aiireum are two distinct 

 species, ignorant of the fact that Dr. Kellogg long ago reported 

 it as growing in " Redwood Caiions, back of Alameda," and that 

 it fruits abundantly in both forms in San Antonio Valley, back of 

 Mt. Hamilton, and with no more reason for division than Ribes 

 spedabilis, which fruits with similar diversity at Point Reyes. 



His descriptions in " Flora Franciscana " are usually quoted, 

 and the attempts at critical work are of the weakest — as for 

 instance where dealing with species well known to him in the 

 living state, he calmly inserts into his flora Vicia gigantea and 

 its strict synonym Lathyrus cinctiis, and L^ipinus cervinns with 

 its second name L sericatus. 



But it is when Mr. Greene enters the field of bibliography 

 and attempts to fix the dates of genera and species that his work 

 stands forth unrivaled. As long as he confines himself to copy- 

 ing from the pages of Pritzel, Jackson, etc., and from Watson's 

 Index he is tolerably secure, but when grown bolder he cuts 

 himself loose and starts on his wild career alone, then chaos 

 comes again. 



Everyone knows that the dates given on the title page of 

 many of the botanical books even as late as forty or fifty years 

 ago are inaccurate. The importance of exactness was yet little 

 felt, and priority was not so much regarded. Between the years 

 1830 and 1846 three English works of much importance to our 

 flora, were published. These were Flora Boreali-Americana in 

 two volumes, Botany Beechey, and Botany of the Sulphur. 

 The first bore on title page the date 1840; the second 1841; and 

 the third 1844. The last concerns us at present but little and 

 may be dismissed with the statement that it was evidently 



