REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS. 67 



From the prospectus we learn that Volume 1, containing the 

 Phanerogams, will be issued in six parts or fascicles. Fascicle I, 

 now before us, includes the orders from Ranunculacese to CelastracecSj 

 followijig the Bentham and Hooker sequence. That the work is, 

 in large part, a compilation the author distinctly implies, as evi- 

 denced by the following sentence transcribed from the jweface: "As 

 the writing of descriptions of plants at this late date is, to a great 

 extent, writing or copying what others have previously done, it is 

 hardly right to claim originality for work done in that field; . . . 

 and to save repetition ... I wish to give full credit here to 

 all authors any portion of whose works have been copied herein." 

 The purist may carp at the above sentence, but to us it is one of 

 those deliciously quaint and truthful expressions which ought to be 

 sufiicient to promote the gayety of botanists, for he must be dull 

 who can not read its meaning and he unobservant who can not find 

 application. However, this is a digression and we very much doubt 

 if Mr. Howell meant to throw any lances. 



Naturally, in a book of this kind, one turns fii'st to get knowledge 

 of the author's expression of genera and species. No new genera are 

 proposed in this part, but the author follows the recent tendency 

 towards the segregation of genera. Such revivals, then, as 

 Batrachium (aquatic species taken from Ranunculus) and Roripa 

 (the yellow-flowered species of Nasturtium) find place here as in the 

 more recent American local floras. In the Portulacacese the generic 

 treatment differs from that in any other flora; it is that outlined by 

 the author in volume 1 of this journal, and displays the writer's 

 field acquaintance with these plants. 



As to species there is even a more decided tendency towards 

 division. The author lias "raised nearly all published varieties of 

 the region ... to specific rank ;" these, with the entirely new 

 specific proposals, enliven the pages with no small number of 

 novelties. In addition all species proposed by other authors are 

 accepted, so that not even one reduction appears in the fascicle. We 

 can not but feel that this last observation of ours has some relation 

 to another, viz., that there is in many cases scarcely any grouping 

 of the species into small sections. For instance, in Delphinium, 

 sixteen species appear in one section. We are rather inclined to 



