MINNESOTA ALG^ 173 



with the contents of the Herbarium and with the Hterature bear- 

 ing on the subject. 



The Flora is intended for use in the field as well as in the 

 herbarium, and care has been taken to make it of service to the 

 botanist or collector who may wish to employ it in the island. 

 Thus the descriptive portion of the book before us is prefaced by a 

 general account of the Orcliidacea, followed by a very full key to 

 the genera. The descriptions of the genera and species are also 

 full and have evidently been drawn up with much care ; there is 

 an excellent bibliography and synonymy for each species, and the 

 distribution is fully detailed, the number of localities and collec- 

 tors cited — among the latter Mr. Wilham Harris, Superintendent 

 of the Gardens, is conspicuous, showing that the investigation of 

 the island has been very thoroughly undertaken. The where- 

 abouts of the type specimens is frequently indicated ; in the case 

 of Swartz's specimens in the National Herbarium these should 

 sometimes perhaps be considered as authentic examples, named 

 as they are by Swartz himself, than actual types : the authors, by 

 the way, have been fortunate in obtaining the loan, from Berlin, 

 of a valuable collection of Swartz's unpublished drawings. 



The thirty-two excellent plates, largely taken from the drawings 

 by Miss Wood already referred to, contain figures or details of a 

 hundred and thirty species, and add greatly to the value of the 

 work. 



Minnesota AlgcB. Vol. i. Josephine Tilden. Report of the 

 Survey. Botanical Series, viii. Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

 April 1, 1910. 



The title of Miss Tilden's book is somewhat misleading. One 

 wonders why a book should be labelled " Minnesota Algae," when 

 very few of the included species are found within hundreds of miles 

 of Minnesota. There appears to be a newly-developed, but at the 

 same time a widespread, ambition on the part of modern authors 

 of works on the algae of small areas to include those of the whole 

 world. This was first conspicuously manifested in Chodat's 

 Algues Vertes de la Suisse, which was chiefly remarkal^le for the 

 description (often very poor and accompanied by atrociously bad 

 references) of those algae which do not occur in Switzerland, nor are 

 ever likely to occur there. The first completed volume of Lemmer- 

 mann's Algenflora von Brandenburg is of a similar nature, only, if 

 we may so express it, much more so ! Lemmermann, by a wild 

 flight of imagination, would have one believe that these plants are 

 so cosmopolitan that all the algae of the world must sooner or 

 later be found in Brandenburg ! Works of this kind are decidedly 

 misleading, and give a false impression concerning the distribution 

 of algae. Moreover, they scarcely serve a useful purpose when the 

 geographical distribution is omitted. 



Miss Tilden's work, as stated on the title-page (possibly as an ex- 

 planation of what is meant by "Minnesota Algae " !),is a synopsis 

 of " the MyxophycecB of North America and adjacent regions, 

 including Central America, Greenland, Bermuda, the West Indies, 



