Current Literature. 299 



Flora of the State of Washington. By Charles V. Piper. Volume 

 11. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, 

 Smithsonian Institute, 8, 636 pp. Washington, D. C. 1906. 



In 1901 Dr. Charles Mohr published the Plant Life of Alabama, 

 a work distinctly in advance of any State flora published up to 

 that time. The excellency of this work was largely due to the 

 full account of the distribution, modes of association and adapta- 

 tions of the flora of the State. Professor Charles V. Piper's recent 

 Flora of the State of Washington is in many respects an equally 

 important contribution to our State floras. 



Professor Piper has been for a period of twenty years a student 

 of the vegetation of the State of Washington. From his long 

 residence in the State he has acquired a most intimate acquaintance 

 with its great diversity of plant life. In his preparation of the 

 flora of the State he has had access to all the collections of plants 

 made in the State which are in American herbaria. In the treat- 

 ment of a number of families and genera, Professor Piper was as- 

 sisted by specialists. The vascular plants are the only ones listed 

 and discussed. 



A brief account is given of the botanical explorations made in 

 Washington from the time of Menzies to the present. The climatic 

 factors which influence vegetation, viz., precipitation, sunshine, 

 temperature, and winds, are discussed and data given. The data, 

 however, are for the most part incomplete and can only apply 

 to a few of the physiographic regions of the State. 



The zonal distribution of Washington plants is discussed at 

 some length and tests given of the more important plants of each 

 zone. To the forester this is by far the most interesting and valu- 

 able part of the volume. An attempt is made to trace the origin 

 of the flora of each of the important zones and comparisons are 

 drawn between the vegetation of adjacent areas. A number of ex- 

 cellent plates illustrates some of the characteristic types of vegeta- 

 tion peculiar to the various physiographic regions of the State. 



With a State so large as Washington and with such marked 

 physiographic features, it is unfortunate that a more detailed ac- 

 count of the vegetation of the State from an ecological standpoint 

 could not have been given. The greater portion of the volume, viz., 

 526 pages, is given to an annotated catalogue of the vascular 

 plants. 



