Sy oe 

a 
1901 } CURRENT LITERATURE 131 
In addition to what appear to be serviceable keys to the genera and 
species, that which is now believed to be their necessary bibliography and 
Synonomy, adequate descriptions, and a full citation of material examined, 
the work contains a large amount of tabular and statistical matter, which if 
not of interest to the ordinary seeker after the name of a plant, at least 
shows the painstaking care that has been bestowed on the study. A 
interesting feature is a table of data concerning the specimens which have 
served for illustration, and as all of the sixty-two native and sixteen intro- 
duced genera are figured, both as to the appearance of their fruit and its 
Cross section, this information is of no little importance for those who in 
future may have to familiarize themselves with what these genera now 
Stand for. 
That all but four of some 800 references have been verified not only 
Shows the industry of the authors but ensures the trustworthiness of their 
Statements in this, a feature which is too often lamentably misleading to the 
men who compile from unverified citations. 
The most conspicuous changes are as follows: Coloptera C. & R. is found 
to represent true Cymopterus, and the Cymopterus aggregate of the former 
Revision is distributed under four genera, two of them new (Aulosfermum and 
Rhysopterus), and two of them Nuttallian (Phellopterus and Pteryxia) ; Peu- 
cedanum L. is found to have no indigenous species in North America, and 
this greatest of our umbelliferous genera becomes known as Lomatium Raf., 
certain groups of species heretofore included being recognized as genera, as 
Cynomarathrum Nutt. and Euryptera Nutt.; Centel/a L. is recognized as dis- 
tinct from Hydrocotyle; Deweya T. & G. is restricted to its type species, and 
a new genus, Drudeophytum, established to include the other species variously 
described under Deweya, Velaea, and Arracacia; and Sphenosciadium Gray is 
taken out of Sedinum. As a result of these and other changes, the following 
§eneric names disappear from our flora: Coloptera C. & R.. Crantzia Nutt., 
Cryptotaenia DC., Discopleura DC., Leptocaulis Nutt., Osmorhiza Rat., 
Peucedanum L., Phellopterus Benth., Selinum L., Tiedemannia DC., an 
Velaea DC. 
All-in-all, though changes are not unlikely to occur that may relatively 
Soon cause us to look upon this as merely work of the last century, it appears 
to be of such a character that the twenty-first century will still see it at the 
elbow of every advanced and attentive student of the Umbelliferae of our 
country.— WILLIAM TRELEASE. 
MINOR NOTICES. 
THE THIRD FASCICLE of the second volume of Pittier's Flora of Costa 
Rica3 has appeared. The first fascicle contained the Polypetalae (excepting 
3PITTIER, H.—Primitiae Florae Costaricensis. Vol. Il, pp. 219-294- Piper- 
ace, by Casimir de Condelle. San José de Costa Rica. 1899. $1. 
