THE TREES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 115 



theory of which is by no means settled yet. Dr. Engel- 

 mann's three excellent plates, displaying all the details of 

 the flowers, will facilitate this investigation. 



The youthful Academy of Natural Sciences of St. Louis 

 is well inaugurating its public career by publications of such 

 character as this paper, and the more elaborate "Mono- 

 graph of Cuscuta " by the same author, which is now in press. 



THE TREES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



We have turned over the pages of this popular exposition ^ 

 with much interest, and gleaned some valuable information. 

 " Botanists will of course find fault with it," says the author, 

 who we well know could write scientifically and profoundly 

 enough, if he so pleased, but who has here come down to the 

 level of his most unlearned readers, discoursed separately of 

 trees, shrubs, and vines, and classified these in a fashion which 

 might well shock the susceptibilities of a stickler for tech- 

 nical nomenclature and natural system in botany. Now, we 

 are not shocked at all ; indeed we quite enjoy a glimpse of 

 Flora en deshabille and slip-shod, and are well aware how 

 much easier it is, and how much better in such cases, to fit 

 your book to its proper readers than to fit the readers to it. 

 The fault we should find is not with the plan of this Report 

 but with the quantity. We could wish for more of it, for a 

 volume as large at least as Mr. Emerson's Report on the 

 Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts. We quite like to see 

 the popular names put foremost, but would suggest that the 

 botanist who does this should lead as well as follow the in- 

 digenous nomenclature, so far as to correct absurd or in- 

 congruous local names and introduce right or fitting ones as 

 far as practicable. For instance, " Virgin's Bower " is not a 

 proper name for Wistaria frutescens, and is rightly applied to 



1 Geological and Natural History Survey of North Carolina. Part III. 

 Botany. The Woody Plants of North Carolina. By M. A. Curtis. Raleigh, 

 1860. (American Journal of Science and Arts, 2 ser., xxx, 275.) 



