16 

 EE VIEWS AND CKITICISMS. 



Synoptical Flora of North America, Vol. I, Part I, Fascicle 

 I. Polypetalse from the Ranunculacese to the Frarik- 

 eniacefe. By Asa Gbay, LL.D., and Sereno Watson, 

 Ph. D. Continued and edited by Benjamin Lincoln 

 Robinson, Ph. D. Issued October 10, 1895. 

 When Dr. Gray took up alone the preparation of the 

 Synoptical Flora, he began where the unfinished Flora of 

 North America by John Torrey and Asa Gray ended, and 

 wrote first the Gamopetalous orders after Compositse. This 

 portion was published in 1878 as Vol. II, Part I, and was fol- 

 lowed in 1884 by Vol. I, Part II, including the Gamo- 

 petalse from Oaprifoliacese through Compositae. Thus the 

 Synoptical Flora stood at the death of Gray io 1888 — 

 half completed. However, the author had been engaged 

 upon a revision of the Polypetalous orders, for Vol. I, Part 

 I, the manuscript for which he had partly finished. This 

 manuscript, or at least the larger portiou of it, forms the 

 body of the fascicle which is now published and which is 

 the first revision of the Polypetalae of North America that 

 has been attempted within a half century. 



The name of Dr. Sereno Watson appears upon the cover 

 as collaborator, but the description of nine genera of Cruci- 

 ferse is all that is in view as his work. No critical insight 

 would be necessary to perceive that another and younger 

 hand had prepared the manuscript for the printer. This has 

 been the special ofiice of Dr. Robinson, the successor of Dr. 

 Watson as Curator of the Gray Herbarium. His task has 

 been, even for this fascicle, no light one, and by reason of 

 many considerations, peculiarly difficult. t has been 



necessary to revise in many places the work of Gray in the 

 light of recent investigations, and it has also fallen to the 

 editor to elaborate anew a considerable number of genera to 

 supply gaps in the manuscript as left by his predecessors. 

 Further, it has been his editorial duty to review the litera- 

 ture of the last seven years relating to the subject matter in 



