94 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



needless repetition. Of tlieir technical accnracy and finish, it is unnecessary to 

 speak. It may perhaps be questioned wliether it would not have been well, at 

 least in the larger genera, to have subjected tlie species to the same process as the 

 genera themselves. One would imagine that what is best in the one case, should 

 be best in the other also. Experience in the use ot the book should determine. As 

 compared with the "Manual" the descriptions are nuich fuller, and yet, even with 

 the additional synonyms, etc., the species occupy on the average but little more 

 space. A synoptical key to tiie orders has been omitted, doubtless because it will 

 come more properly in the first volume at the beginning of the Gdmopctalre, of 

 which we have here only the concluding portion. 



Much care has evidently been taken in the selection of the type used for diffei'- 

 ont purposes, and in the general ''get up" of the book. It is a satisfaction to see 

 that Dr. Gray has not countenanced, in the writing of botanical names, the meth- 

 ods of punctuation and the disuse of capital letters so generally favored by Ameri- 

 can zoologists and entomologists, and wliich some would force upon our botanists. 

 Wliatever may be the rules of punctuation in Latin or in the Continental lan- 

 guages, in tlie use of the English language, the same principles should apply in 

 writing upon botany as upon other subjects. In general, tlius far, this has been 

 the case. English-writing botanists, and most English Latin-writing botanists, 

 as well, have been united in their adhesion t>i English customs in this matter, and 

 it is to be hoped that they will so lemain. 



The portion of the garnopetalous flora here described includes 1,560 native 

 species, belonging to 298 genera. Tiie introduced plants add 26 genera and 96 

 species. A comparison witli the number of species native to the region covered 

 by the "Manual" (as given i the second edition; makes the pi'obable entire num- 

 ber of phenogamous species in North America to lie between nine and ten thous- 

 and. The same conclusion is deduced from the number of polypettilous species as 

 enumerated in the "Bibliographical Index." The mean result from the tvt^o com- 

 parisons is 9,878 species, so that 10,000 is very probably a closelj' approximate 

 limit. Of the 298 genera, 120 have only a single spe(ues each. By far the most im- 

 portant, order is that of the Scrophulnriacece, containg 38 genera and 315 species, the 

 next in order being tlie Lahiatoi, with 37 genera, but only 189 species. These or- 

 ders, with tlie ICricaeecc, Borraginaceni, Hijdrophiillacece and Polemoniacece, include 

 nearly half of the genera and over three-fifths of the species. The largest genera 

 are Pentstemon with 71, GiUa with 70, and Pliacelia with 56 species. 



As regards the distribution of this flora, it appears from a very cursory exami- 

 nation that it divides readily into an eastern, a central and a western section. The 

 first may be considered as covered essentiality by Gray's Manual and Chapman's 

 Flora, and tlie last in good degree by the Botany of California. Taking these as a 

 guide, and making to each the additions indicated by the present "Flora." it is 

 found that the eastern division includes 610 native species, of which 130 are pecu- 

 liar to the Manual, 205 to Chapman's Flora, and 275 common to both. The Botany 

 of California includes ,567 species, of Avhich 58 belong also to the Atlantic States. 

 Of the remaining 4.50 species, 48 are high northern and do not enter the LTnited 

 States, 8 are Mexican and not yet found within our limits, 290 are mainly south- 

 ern, belonging to the warmer and dryer interior, ami 103 are found only in the 

 Rocky Mountains or tlie cooler region westward to Oregon. Had Greenlaml been 

 included in the limits adopted by Dr. Gray, only two other species '^ Veronica frut- 

 iculosn and Gnntiana nivalis) would have been added, and of these the latter is re- 

 ported from Labrador. 



Numerous additions and changes of nomenclature are made in the several sec- 

 tional floras above mentioned— some of them new, many to be found in previous 

 publications. About 40 species are added to the flora of the southern Atlantic 



