
132 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [FEBRUARY 
Polygalaceae, Sapindaceae, Meliaceae, Leguminosae, and Melastomaceae), by 
John Donnell Smith. The second fascicle included the Gamepetalae (except- 
ing Rubiaceae, Compositae, Solanaceae, Convolvulaceae, Acanthaceae, and 
Labiatae), by the same author. The present fascicle presents the Piperacee, 
by Casimir de Candolle, who calls attention to the close affinity of the flora 
to that of South America. The two genera are Piper and Peperomia; the 
former containing eighty-three species, fifty-one of which are described as 
new ; the latter forty-three species, twenty-one of which are new.—J. M 
FESSOR Kari” SCHUMAN has begun the publication of Blihende 
ppc (Lconographia Cactacearum), with the assistance of the Deutsches 
een-Gesellschaft. Each part is to contain four colored plates, with 
ee text, and is sold for four marks. It is expected that about three 
parts will be issued each year. The first part contains Echinocactus micro- 
spermus Web., Echinopsis cinnabarina Lab., Echinocereus subinermis Salm- 
. Dyck, and Echinocactus Anisitsii K. Sch., the last being a new species from 
Paraguay. The plates are beautifully colored illustrations of the plants in 
bloom, made from nature by Frau Dr. T. Giirke. The text, by Professor Schu- 
man, needs no comment. The publisher is J. Neumann, Neudamm, Bran- 
denburg, Germany.—J. M. C 
Dr. A. J. Grout’s Mosses with a hand lens‘ describes in nontechnical 
language 100 of the mosses of the northeastern United States which can be 
recognized with some degree of certainty by the use of a simple lens. The 
identification in many cases must be limited to the genus, the specific differ- 
ences being too recondite for observation in this way. Miss Thayer’s excel- 
lent drawings will be quite as helpful to the student as Dr. Grout’s text. 
key based upon the more apparent structural characters, and one based upon 
habitat, would need to be tested before pronouncing judgment upon them, 
but they are here and there unavoidably somewhat vague, which always 
detracts from the value of a key. The only danger from the use of such a 
book will be that beginners will not heed sufficiently the author’s cautions, 
and will be too sure of their determinations. But if properly used the book 
will stimulate interest in the mosses and lead on to more exact study. 
The glossary has concise and accurate definitions, elucidated by admira- 
ble illustrations. It would have been more serviceable had it been arranged 
in one alphabetic sequence instead of being divided into several. One must 
first know to what his strange word is applicable before he can 1 tell in what 
group to look for it— C. R. B. 
‘Grout, A. J.: Mosses with a hand lens. A nontechnical handbook of the more 
common and more easily recognized mosses of the northeastern United States. Illus- 
treated by Mary V. Thayer. 8vo. de xii+74. pls. 8 figs. go. New Yo rk: Th 
Author, 360 Lenox Road, Flatbush. 
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