THE AMERIICAN BOTANIST 61 



Prof. R. S. Cocks of the Louisiana State Museum has 

 issued as Bulletin No. 1, of the Natural History Survey, a 

 list of the "Leguminosae of Louisiana." It is more than a 

 mere list, however covering- as it does about 25 pages and 

 nearly forty plates. It has been the author's aim either to 

 refer each species to a good published illustration or to illus- 

 trate it in the list. The distribution and habitat of each spe- 

 cies is given with the common names and necessary 

 synonymy, the nomenclature being according to the Vienna 

 rules. Nearly one hundred and fifty species are given, several 

 of them new to science. It is the intention of Prof. Cocks to 

 follow this Bulletin with others devoted to other plant 

 families, which will form a work badly needed in the region, 

 since current manuals have dealt very superficially with the 

 plants which grow there. 



Among recently issued books of interest to botanists we 

 note "Nature Sketches in Temperate America" by Dr. J. L. 

 Hancock from McClurg & Co., "The Landscape Gardening 

 Book" by Grace Tabor and "Home Vegetable Gardening" by 

 F. F. Rockwell from the John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia. 



Within the past few years discoveries of the greatest 

 importance as regards the evolution of the flowering plants 

 have been made in the realms of fossil botany. Only a short 

 time ago nothing seemed more certain than that the coal 

 measures were formed largely of gigantic ferns and allied 

 plants, now, it is reported, true fossil ferns are somewhat 

 rare, the species once regarded as ferns having quite unex- 

 pectedly turned out to be primitive flowering and seed bearing 

 plants. The discovery of this great group of pteridosperms 

 or cyadofilices as they are variously called has opened up 

 an entirely new vista into former geological ages, and renders 

 very timely Dr. Marie C. Stopes book on "Ancient Plants," 

 which is issued by the D. Van Nostrand Co., of New York. 



