BOOK REVIEW 31 



In recording localities the short method applied for Ranunculus 

 Cymbalaria and Brassica juncea is commendable. The term 

 "Throughout the state" ought to have been used for all those 

 common plants found everywhere by everyone. 



Giving in most cases a large number of localities and crediting 

 the collectors is just as much waste, the more culpable during 

 times when the federal administration instructs its employees to 

 save paper. The records for most other plants not belonging to 

 this class are numerous and the more valuable as so many of 

 them have their place in history. When the war came, what 

 little of the virgin prairie was left had to be utilized for grain pro- 

 duction and pasturing of beef cattle, and very little ground beside 

 the section lines was left as a refuge for the wild flowers. 



I shall not raise any quarrel by dropping adverse remarks that 

 signify my individual views regarding the preferred species names. 

 Nor shall I resent that among the plants collected by me and for 

 which I have been credited in the flora, a not trifling number has 

 been passed under names not at all attributable to me. I shall only 

 mention critically a few particulars. 



Malva rotundifolia L., as described in the key, is identical with 

 the plant bearing that name in American manuals. M. rotundifolia 

 L. in European floras comes very near to or is identical with the M. 

 borealis of the key. It is an intricate proposition to decide which 

 view is right or wrong. 



Steironema membranaceum Greene is represented only by the 

 type at the University of Notre Dame, Ind., and in my herbarium. 

 The Pleasant Lake specimen of 191 2 was erroneously distributed 

 under this name. 



Dracocephalum NuUallii {Physostegia parviflora). If somebody 

 wishes to reduce P. formosior to synonymy, he at least ought to 

 connect it with P. virginiana, not with this species! 



Fragaria virginiana Duch. Why not as well take the full step 

 and call it F. vesca L. and avoid the anxiety and worry we other 

 poor ft Hows have experienced in trying to master a delicate differ- 

 entiation between proposed species? 



Oxytropis. Almost all our species have been reduced to synonymy 

 under Aragallus Lamberti, and there is poor reason then to exempt 

 A. monticola from a similar fate. This would be accomplished by 

 making the floral limit i2-25mm. (in place of i6-25mm.) and dis- 

 regard the color difference which is not respected anyway, subse- 



