BOTANY. 



95 



Sullivant'a last and crowning work, the " Sup- 

 plement to the Icones Muscorum," appeared 

 in 1874, his death having occurred in 1873. 



(2) Fefns. Considerable interest was mani- 

 fested in ferns in 1875-'76, and in 1877 was be- 

 fnn the " Ferns of North America," by Prof, 

 aton, of Yale College. It was completed in 

 1880, in two sumptuous quarto volumes, of 

 over five hundred pages of text, describing all 

 ferns known north of Mexico, and eighty-one 

 colored plates, each of the one hundred and 

 fifty or more species being represented. The 

 work of G. E. Davenport on " Botrychium 

 Simplex," and on other ferns, and that of John 

 Williamson on the " Ferns of Kentucky " and 

 "Fern Etchings," are highly creditable. A 

 little manual of "Ferns and their Allies," by 

 Prof. Underwood, is very useful, and contains 

 a full bibliography of the work on American 

 ferns and allied forms. All the works above 

 mentioned appeared between 1877 and 1882. 



Phanerogamia. The period since 1870 has 

 been particularly fruitful in the publication 

 of works on the flowering plants of North 

 America. This is due in part to the untiring 

 energy of Dr. Asa Gray and his coadjutors, 

 and in part to the patronage of the United 

 States Government, through the several geo- 

 graphical and geological surveys of the Terri- 

 tories. In 1871 appeared the "Botany of the 

 United States Geological Exploration of the 

 Fortieth Parallel," under Clarence King. It 

 was vol. v of the reports, a large quarto, enu- 

 merating 1,235 species, and illustrated with 

 forty plates. The work was written by Sereno 

 Watson, assisted by Engelmann, Gray, Eaton, 

 and others, and included the plants of northern 

 Utah and Nevada. There were descriptions of 

 new species, and indeed of all species found, 

 not described in Gray's " Manual of Botany for 

 the Eastern United States." This plan was 

 followed in all subsequent reports on botany 

 of a similar character made in connection with 

 the United States surveys. In 1874 appeared 

 in octavo form a " Synopsis of the Flora of 

 Colorado," by Porter and Coulter, a part of 

 the Hayden survey. In 1878 was published 

 " Botany," vol. vi of the United States survey 

 under Wheeler. It was by Prof. Eothrock, 

 assisted by Watson, Eaton, and other eminent 

 specialists, and included the territory of south- 

 ern Utah and Nevada, and portions of Cali- 

 fornia, New Mexico, and Arizona; 1,657 species 

 were enumerated, with 30 plates, 27 of the 

 latter being of new species. In addition to 

 these were published two large quarto vol- 

 umes on the " Cretaceous and Tertiary Fossil 

 Flora of the Territories," a part of the Hayden 

 survey, and appearing in 1874 and 1878. 



In 1876 appeared vol. i, and in 1880 vol. ii 

 of the "Botany of California," the most elab- 

 orate and complete State flora yet published. 

 Indeed, with the exception of " The Flora of 

 New York," no others can compare with it. 

 It is a quarto, of over 1,100 pages, including 

 the flowering plants, ferns, and mosses of Cali- 



fornia, and often of Oregon. The first volume 

 was by Brewer, Watson, and Gray, the second 

 by Watson alone. This work was begun un- 

 der the patronage of the State Geological Sur- 

 vey of California, but the State having aban- 

 doned it, it was finally printed by the private 

 subscription of the following-named gentle- 

 men: Leland Stanford, D. O. Mills, J. C. 

 Flood, L. Tevis, Charles Mclaughlin, R. B. 

 Woodward, W. Norris, John O. Earl, Henry 

 Pierce, Oliver Eldridge, S. C. Hastings, and 

 Charles Crocker. The foregoing account of 

 this prolific period proves that government or 

 private patronage is absolutely necessary to 

 the development of the best scientific work. 

 During this period had appeared, as No. 258 

 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 

 Sereno Watson's "Bibliographical Index of 

 North American Botany," vol. i being a re- 

 vised synonymy of the Polypetala?, and a work 

 of nearly five hundred pages. The other vol- 

 ume will appear by the time that Dr. Asa 

 Gray's " Flora of North America " is completed. 

 The latter work, begun in 1838 and 1840 by 

 the publication of two volumes by Torrey and 

 Gray, was abandoned on account of the vast 

 regions of North America then unexplored, 

 from which collections, rich in new species, 

 were corning in at intervals. Over the great 

 quantity of material that has continued to pour 

 into the Harvard University herbarium for 

 forty years, Dr. Gray has labored, besides pub- 

 lishing text-books, writing reviews, and con- 

 ducting class- work. Papers on the plants of 

 the great plains and the Rocky Mountains 

 have appeared in almost every volume of the 

 "Proceedings of the American Academy" 

 since 1850, and his hand was seen in the "Bot- 

 any of the Pacific Railroad Survey." Finally, 

 in 1878, appeared one part, of nearly 400 

 pages, of the "Synoptical Flora of North 

 America." In 1884 appeared a similar part. 

 These two parts describe all the Gamopetalee 

 north of Mexico. We may expect the three 

 remaining parts to appear within a few years, 

 making altogether two volumes of about 1,200 

 pages each, and including descriptions of all 

 North American plants, from the Ranuncula- 

 ceee to the vascular Cryptogamia, inclusive. 

 Besides the publications mentioned, Dr. Gray 

 has found time to plan a new series of text- 

 books in botany, and to bring out vol. i in 

 1879. It is entitled " Structural Botany," con- 

 tains 440 pages, and is an extension, and prac- 

 tically a sixth edition of a previous work so 

 named. Vol. ii, on "Physiological Botany," 

 will be brought out by Prof. Goodale; vol. iii, 

 " Cryptogamic Botany," by Prof. Farlow ; vol. 

 iv, "Systematic and Economic Botany," by 

 Dr. Gray himself. These three volumes are 

 yet unpublished. 



Of other important American works, we 

 might mention the appearance of Prof. Mc- 

 Closkie's "Elementary Botany" in 1883, and 

 also, in the same year, Prof. Kellermann's 

 "Elements of Botany," two text-books sug- 



