THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 155 



direct way and describe every species in the most concise 

 and accurate terms; but not infrequently a cold technical 

 account of a species fails to give one a clear impression of 

 it. One would scarcely recognize his friends if described in a 

 similar way. It is at this point that Wood .excels all others. 

 His technical descriptions are models of brevity but after the 

 technical details have been set down, the botanist merges into 

 the plant lover and then he adds a sentence or two in our 

 own tongue that so aptly characterizes the plant that the last 

 lingering doubt disappears. It is this personal touch that gives 

 life to his descriptions. (Jf the rue anemone, he says, "A 

 tine little plant of early spring. Root consisting of several 

 oblong tubers." Of hepatica, "This little plant is one of the 

 earlist harbingers of spring, often putting forth its neat and 

 elegant flowers in the neighborhood of some snowbank." His 

 observations on a common violet indicates that he was familiar 

 with the variations that later writers have seized upon for the 

 segregation of species for he says of Viola Cucullata "This 

 varies from pubescent to glabrous, from leaves reniforn to 

 ovate, deltoid, or hastate, from flowers deep blue to light 

 blue or even white and, as now generally conceded, to the 

 following remarkable forms" of which he describes two. He 

 says of the sundew "A curious little plant not uncommon in 

 bogs and on muddy shores. Whole plant of a reddish hue 

 like other sundews and beset with glandular hairs which are 

 usually tipped with a drop of clammy fluid glistening like 

 dew in the sun." Of the closed gentian he writes "Flowers 

 inflated, so nearly inclosed at the top as to be readily taken 

 for buds and the young botanist waits in vain to see them 

 expand." And so he passes from species to species with 

 observations that show his deep love for the study. Unfor- 

 tunately the "Class-Book" has long been out of print. The 



