— 

CURRENT LER RA PORE. 
BOOK REVIEWS: 
A Californian manual.* 
THIS manual by Professor Jepson deserves more than a passing mention, 
for in a certain sense it is constructed on new lines. The average manual is 
chiefly a compilation of scattered literature checked by more or less herba- 
rium study. The result is merely an approximation to the facts and never 
quite satisfactory to the field student. Professor Jepson has met his plants in 
the field and has described them as they live. He has recognized literature 
so far as it fits his material, but has not allowed it to bias or handicap him. 
As a consequence, the descriptions are kably fresh and telling, and have 
no flavor of stereotyped diagnoses. Not only is the wonderfully diverse 
Californian flora set forth, but numerous ecological notes suggest the factors 
that lie behind the diversities. Repeated attention is called to the variations 
in vegetative characters which a single species may undergo in different situ- 
ations. The following statements from the preface are worthy of quotation, 
since they are of general application : 

Near the ocean a species is often more depressed or condensed than in the 
an and more fleshy. 
mps or wet soils the plant tends to become succulent and of ranker 
ek a ora gla 
3. In valley soils ae ore is commonly much more rank than elsewhere. 
4. On hilltops plants tend to become dwarf and acaulescent; often far more 
pubescent also. 
5. In saline or subsaline soil the stems and foliage in many species are far more 
vigorous and the flowers larger than on stiff clays or adobes. 
In the shady woods leaves become thinner and larger, often conspicuously so. 
7. At high altitudes the flowers are larger in proportion to stature and brighter 
in color. 
Such facts are known to the ecologist, but it seems hard to get the tax- 
onomist to give them due weight. . The region covered lies west of the Sacra- 
mento and San Joaquin rivers, south of the counties of Mendocino and 
Colusa, and north of the Pajare river and Pacheo pass. Several such manuals 
will be needed to present the flora of California, and it is daily becoming 
more evident that no one is competent to prepare them who has not lived 
among the plants. The numerous analytical keys are prepared with special 
*JEPSON, WILLIS LiNN: A flora of western middle California. 8vo. pp. iv-+- 
625. Berkeley, California: Encina Publishing Company. April 16, 1901. $2.50. 
1901] 435 
