168 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 
/ 
“common words as substitutes for technical and unusual 
words.” * 
It seems difficult to appreciate that such introductory re- 
marks could possibly be endorsed by the highly esteemed 
Smithsonian Institution, and especially when applied to a 
work dealing with the flora of the District of Columbia. Are 
we really compelled to believe that Farlow’s words: ‘There 
is something in the air of Washington which seems to make 
it inevitable that those in the government employ should be- 
lieve that it is the business of the government to undertake 
or control all scientific work’ + are still applicable to the 
scientific departments in Washinetén. So far as concerns 
the so-called “botanical’’ work conducted by the Smithsonian 
Institution it is so, and even to.a more lamentable extent than 
expressed by Farlow. 
In presenting to the readers of the AMERICAN MIDLAND Na- 
TURALIST a brief analysis of some of these works, we freely 
admit that the American scientists are not in need of being 
told about the status of Botany four hundred years ago, nor 
of elementary Botany at present; we have ventured, however, 
to insert the preceding brief, much too incomplete, sketch of 
previous botanical activity in order to render the contrast - 
more clear, when comparing the recent botanical publications, 
which will be discussed in the subsquent pages. 
Let us begin with the Flora of the District of Columbia 
(1. ec.) 329 pages and 57 photographs. Some sort of botanical 
legisJation is introduced in the first pages: I. Keys with com- 
mon words as substitutes for technical and unusual words. 
II. All the species admitted to the formal list are based upon 
specimens in the National Herbarium. III. The nomenclature 
is in accord with the American Code of Botanical Nomencla- 
ture, except that so-called duplicate binomials are not used. 
When complying with, or let us say if we are in the position 
to fully appreciate these principles of Smithsonian Botany, we 
are told, that ‘‘a person with almost no knowledge of botany 
can trace a strange plant to its proper family.” 
*Flora of the District of Columbia and vicinity, by A. S. Hitchcock and Paul C. 
Standley with the assistance of the botanists of Washington.. The preface by F. V. 
Coville, Curator of the U. S. National Herbarium. Contrib. U. S. Natl. Herb. Vol. 21. 
Washington 1919. 
+ The popular conception of the scientific man at the present day. Science January 
R, 1906, 
