1892. ] Open Letters. 25 
list includes 125 species, about equally divided between the two. A 
discussion of the distribution of the woody plants of the state at the 
close is interesting. Dr. Bessey thinks that this distribution shows 
that the woody plants have nearly all come up.the Missouri bottoms 
and spread west and north-west. Those found only in the western 
part have undoubtedly come from the Rocky Mountains and have 
when eastward to their present limits. 
nomenclature of the list shows a wide departure from that of 
the ase Justifiable as many of these departures are, they seem 
out of place in such a publication as the present, because they cer- 
tainly interfere with its usefulness for those not specialists.* 
IF COLLECTORS are not properly informed as to how to collect 
plants it will not be for want of instructions. Two months ago we 
noticed Prof. Penhallow’s booklet; now we have before us a pamphlet 
issued by the National Museum and prepared by Mr. F. H. Knowlton.? 
It contains directions for collecting all sorts of plants, as well as for 
caring for them after they are collected. In its preparation the 
author has drawn freely on Bailey’s Collector’s Handbook and the. 
herbarium number of this journal (June, 1886, for which there was 
such a demand that the extra edition was soon exhausted). In many 
respects the present directions are better than their predecessors; it 
extends their range by giving directions for the collection of fossil 
plants. Certainly now if one puts together the instructions to be found 
in every text book and in almost every flora, those of Bailey, Penhal- 
low and Knowlton, he will have all the knowledge that writing can_ 
give him of how to preserve plants. /Jam satis! 
OPEN LETTERS. 
A section of botany in the American Association. 
The thought of having a ee ai the botanists in the 
of pies life in America. All math it ‘that Section F is now crowded 
members and papers, and doubtless many are deterred’ from 
taking part in the sessions from lack of opportunity. At the last 
*Bessry, C. E.—Preliminary report on the native trees ag Hadi of Ne- 
braska. Batletn vn of t the © Ag. Exp. Sta. of Neb., vol iv. . art. PP. Magne 
*Kno rt Bof 
Bulletin of °U. s Nat. Mus. no. 39. re pp. 46. ship 10, we pbingien: Ay sts 
nting Office. 1891 
‘ 
/ 
