THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 63 



were similar to those in the Northeastern States the man- 

 uals designed for this latter region would be fairly useful, 

 but if the percentage were lower, two different manuals 

 would have to be used. The fact that Wood's Class-book 

 of Botany, though intended for use in the Northeastern 

 States, contains a large number of the plants of the Gulf 

 States, gave it a popularity which it has long retained. 

 For the borderland between the two regions, it is abso- 

 lutely the best book that can be obtained. Although there 

 are more students of botany in the Northeastern States 

 than in all the other parts of the country put together, 

 nobody seems to have made an attempt to say where the 

 southern, southwestern and western borders of its flora 

 are located. A subscriber asks for information on this 

 point and we would be glad to have replies from readers 

 who have collected in such regions. How far west is 

 Gray's Manual useful? How far south? How far north 

 is a southern flora more desirable than one designed for 

 the Northern States 



Abnormal Flowers. — Probably not a season goes by 

 without supplying an observant botanist with many in- 

 stances of departures from the normal. Mrs. Nellie G. 

 Masson, Indianapolis, Ind., writes that she has found a 

 specimen of Phlox divaricata with a second corolla inside 

 the normal one, and a double specimen of the common 

 buttercup that equals the cultivated ranunculus of the 

 garden. An apple blossom found had green leaflike parts 

 among the white petals of a very double flower, and a blue 

 violet with the two upper petals cleft was noted. The 

 abnormal forms often give us a better insight into Nature's 

 processes than the usual blossoms do and whole books 

 have been written on this subject. All such forms are 

 worth recording. 



