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BOOK NOTICES. 



Catalogue of Canadian Plants. Part VI, Musci, pp. 295. By 

 John Macouj^, M.A., F.L.S, F.RS.C, Montreal, 1892. 



In the preceding parts, I. to V., o( this very valuable woric Prof. 

 Macoun has enumerated the various species and varieties of flowering 

 plants, ferns, and fera- allies, native and alien, to be found within the 

 Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland, and has given very fully the 

 geographical distribution of each so far as this is known. The total 

 number of flowering plants, ferns and fern-allies therein recorded being 

 3,209 species with numerous varieties. Of these 2,340 are Exogens, 

 771 are Endogens and 98 are Acrogens, added to which is a list ot 165 

 Hepaticte or scale mosses. The part under review which treats of the 

 Musci or real Mosses is a phenomenal work, one that has probably never 

 been excelled. The commencement of this great undertaking more 

 than a quarter of a century ago, must have been surrounded with 

 difficulties that could only be overcome by gr.-at courage and determina- 

 tion. Still, the author has persevered and after 31 years ot unremitting 

 labour he is able to present to the scientific world a record of which he 

 and his fellov countrymen have a right to feel proud. To go into 

 minuter details of so voluminous a work would require more spacj than 

 can be allo^ved, so that a mere summary can be given. In the present 

 part. Prof. Macoun records 1,070 spec'es and varieties as the total Moss 

 Flora ot Canada, so far as this is at present known, giving a much 

 larger record for Canada alone than is given by Lesquereux and James 

 in their valuable " Manual of the Mosses of N )rth America," which 

 included not only the United States, but also Canada ; their record 

 being 1,020 species and varieties. But of the 1,070 sj^ecies and 

 varieties given by Prof. Macoun, 400 are not recorded in "The 

 Manual," so that the author ha-: raised the Moss Flora of America from 

 1,020 to over 1,420 species and varieties. And what is even more 

 remarkable is this, that of the 400 additional moss plants 200 are 

 new to science, — have never before been recorded, — hence it may be said 

 with truth that Professor Macoun's work has created an epoch in the 

 Bryology of North America. But what stamps this work with even 



