we area SS ee 
} 
03 
Now out of all this botanical chaff what wheat can we find? 
It appears as if Gray’s aie and Britton’s Flora are trying to 
_ describe the same two spec 
n’s characters fk hie two species ces pe down and 
_ taking account of the figures would be about as fo 
Common characters. Bark white and ae "off in thin 
Leaves denticulate and — slender-petioled, large, 
q canes dark-green and not hairy above. Fertile catkins cylin- 
dric, slender- “pedunten: 9-24” ie Fruiting bracts ciliate. Nut 
narrower-than its w 
- Distinctive charact 
old. Fruiting bracts with obtuse lobes, the centrai one little ex- 
serted beyond the others. 
pyrifera. Leaves ovate, with more rounded base, acute 
E to short acuminate but not tailed, obscurely and sharply dentate, 
_ pubescent. F ruiting bracts acute, the central one exserted wholly. 
Comparing these two sets of enesnlaa descriptions in the Man 
ual and in Britton’s Flora we find they agree well in a general 
way, and are brief and to the point if impet rfec 
In spite of the great amount of chaff in Britton’s Flora a 
_ the perpetually ones descriptions it was the best thing ever 
_ printed on the e n flora, because of the excellent figures, the » 
exact citation my setae A and the possibility of being able to. 
sift out of the verbosity of descriptions the characters of t 
Manual, being almost aes 
