I 



l8 9 J ] Current Literature. 185 



Prof. L. H. Bailey has found time to write "The Nursery-book," 

 a complete guide, not to the domestic matters which the first glance 

 at its title will suggest, but to the multiplication and pollination of 

 plants. The seven chapters have the following titles: Seedage, Sep- 

 aration; Layerage; Cuttage; Graftage; The Nursery List; Pollination. 

 The book must be of great value to nurserymen, but it is also full of 

 information and suggestion to the botanist, who has to teach, or who 

 wants to experiment. It is published by the Rural Publishing Co. of 

 N. Y. City. 



Mr. John Donnell Smith has just issued the second part of his 

 very handsome " Enumeratio Plantarum Guatemalensium." This 

 part contains 100 pages of text, printed only on one side, and gives a 

 full enumeration of all the Guatemalan plants collected by Mr. Smith 

 and Baron von Tiirckheim since the appearance of the previous part. 

 Certain groups have been distributed among specialists of this country 

 and Europe, and the enumeration indicates a large number of new 

 species. 



Flora Franciscana, Part I, is the title of a new publication by our 

 indefatigable friend, Professor E. L. Greene. As the author remarks 

 on the title-page, thii is "An attempt to classify and describe the vas- 

 cular plants of middle California." Twenty orders are presented, 

 beginning with Leguminosae and ending with Caryophylleae, the obso- 

 lete distinction between Polypetalae and Apetalae being disregarded. 

 One expects to find all sorts of departures from ordinary methods of 

 classification, but the vast array of facts that have been collected by 

 the direct field observation of a keen observer make this publication 

 a very valuable one. Probably there always will be differences of 

 opinion as to the drawing of ordinal, generic, and specific lines, but 

 the facts, thus pigeon holed according to the fancy of the observer, are 

 permanent things. It would be impossible, in this notice, to call 

 attention to the changes proposed, for this pamphlet of 128 pages con- 

 tains in almost every page things interesting enough to be noted. 

 However, Professor Greene's views are sufficiently well known to need 

 no explanation. This part can be obtained for 75 cents, and it should 

 be in the hands of every student of the Pacific slope flora. 



The current memoir (vol. ii, no. 3) of the Torrey Botanical Club 

 's by Mr. Theodore Holm, who presents a paper entitled " Contribu- 

 tions to the knowledge of the germination of some North American 

 Plants," handsomely illustrated by 15 plates. This paper deals with 

 the description of the germination and early stage of growth and 

 development of the rhizomes of certain plants. It must be said that 



