CURRENT LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
Two new western ‘‘Floras.’’ 
Dr. RypsBerc has long been at work on a flora of the Rocky Mountain 
tegion, and in connection with his studies there have been many new species 
added and much critical work published. Therefore, when the Agricultural 
Experiment Station of Colorado was compelled to complete the determinations 
of its collections, it was natural to turn to Dr. RypBeErc, and the result is a station 
bulletin dealing with the flora of Colorado. As was to be expected, the work 
grew in the preparation, so that it is nearly an exhaustive list of the plants at 
present known in Colorado. It is not a full descriptive manual in the ordinary 
sense, for under the species one finds only synonymy, range, and stations; but 
the analytical keys should enable one to determine the genus and species of all 
the forms ordinarily met. In this way 2,912 species of vascular plants are char- 
acterized, and this number is said to be surpassed by no state except California 
and perhaps Florida. It is quite characteristic of this great flora that one-fifth 
of it belongs to the Compositae, and that there are only twenty gymnosperms and 
forty pteridophytes. The nomenclature used by the author is well known, 
as are also his views on generic limitations. As he himself says in the introduc- 
tion, he “belongs to that radical school which believes in small genera with closely 
related species, rather than in larger ones with a heterogeneous mass of different 
groups of plants having relatively little relationship to each other.” The author 
also says that “the nomenclature used is in principle agreeing with the so-called 
American code adopted at a meeting in Philadelphia, and submitted to the Inter- 
national Botanical Congress at Vienna, with a few modifications resulting from a 
compromise with the European botanists.” If this means that the Vienna Code 
'S used only in so far as it meets the approval of the individual, then international 
congresses on nomenclature will be of little value until they achieve the impossible 
result of formulating a code that will satisfy all taxonomists. Very wisely the 
author publishes in this bulletin no new genera or species, or even new Names Or 
combinations. This publication will certainly serve a most useful purpose, 
and both author and station are to be commended for carrying it through. 
The other flora is that of Washington by CHARLES V. Preer’. The author 
Says that his “principal aim is to present a summary of our present knowledge 
Bitten 
*Rypperc, P. A., Flora of Colorado. Agric. Exp. Sta. Colorado, Bull. roo. 
PP. Xxli+4rq. 1906. 
* Piper, CHARLES V., Flora of the State of Washington. Contrib. U. S. Nat. 
Herb. 11: 1-637. pls. I-22 and colored map. 1906. 
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