162 THE PLANT WORLD 



likely to be noticed by the general reader is the wealth of excellent illus- 

 trations, many of them in colors. We are acquainted with no other book 

 in which so many of the rarer orchids are depicted in their natural colors, 

 and these are as a rule fairly accurate. 



The first part of ' ' Bog-Trotting ' ' is devoted to a series of chapters 

 giving accounts of various trips to special regions, or in search of par- 

 ticular species. The narrativ^e is interesting, but it is to be regretted that 

 the author often lacks literary finish in her style and is sometimes a trifle 

 faulty in grammatical construction. There is a too frequent repetition, 

 moreover, of similar experiences ; the accounts of excursions for the 

 ram's head moccasin flower, one of the rarest of our native orchids, might 

 for example have been gathered together in a single chapter and thus 

 rendered more effective. As it is, the author's experiences with this and 

 other species of interest are scattered through the book in such a way that 

 all possibility of securing a climax is lost and the reader's interest wanes 

 in spite of himself. 



The second part of the book is occupied with a technical synopsis of 

 the New England orchids, each genus and species being described at 

 length. Of this work we can only say that the author should have 

 omitted it. A list of references to Britton's or Gray's Manual would 

 have served the purpose quite as well, and it is scarcely necessary to add 

 that a book intended for popular reading, bearing such a title as this one, 

 should not have its pages cumbered with technical matter. Moreover, the 

 descriptions, though fairly well drawn, betray the hand of the amateur in 

 taxonomic work. The botanist will smile, for example, at the form of 

 the statement in the generic description of Habenaria that the flowers 

 "are ornamented with spurs, fringed petals and throats." Equally un- 

 fortunate is the publication of a new species, ' 'Habenaria Andrezvseii [sic] 

 white n. sp. (per letter), 1903," which is apparently the form of hybrid 

 between H. psycodes and H. lacera, published in Rhodora (3 : 245, 1903). 

 .In a popular work of this kind no botanist would think of hunting up 

 citations, and the publication of new names or combinations is quite 

 indefensible. 



We regret the necessity of calling attention to these defects, but it is 

 manifest that Miss Niles should have given more serious consideration to 

 the form and scope of her work. The redeeming feature of the book, as 

 we have intimated, is the abundance of fine illustrations, and for these 

 alone it is worth possessing. c. i,. p. 



Mosses with Hand-Lens and Microscope. A Non-Technical Hand- 

 book of the More Common Mosses of the United States. Part II. By 

 A. J. Grout, Ph. D. New York : Published by the author. 



Advance sheets of the second part of Dr. Grout's excellent manual 

 have reached us, and they confirm the good impression made by the first 

 part. When this work reaches completion its accurate illustrations, clear 

 descriptive treatment and beautiful typography and presswork will not 

 only serve to give it a prominent place in the bryologist's library but 

 will make it indispensable to those who are entering as novices upon the 

 study of the mosses. c. l. p. 



