CURRENT. LITERATURE. 
BOOK REVIEWS. 
The botanists of Philadelphia. 
AFTER much correspondence and research Dr. Harshberger has pub- 
lished, as a contribution to the history of botany in the United States, a bulky 
volume‘ comprising the biographies of the botanists who have lived in or near 
Philadelphia. The limit has a 60-mile radius, which is comfortably large, as 
it takes in the cities of Lancaster, Bethlehem, Reading, and Easton, Pa., 
most of New Jersey except the extreme northern part, and a good part of 
Delaware. Within this liberal area, a considerable number of people are 
included, whose title to be ranked as botanists of Philadelphia is slight, either 
because of their transitory interest in the subject or the brevity of their resi- 
dence in the city. Philadelphia has had enough real botanists of her very 
own to make an interesting book about, and we could have spared the inci- 
dental collectors (like Josiah Gregg), the distinguished physicians (like Dr. 
Horatio C. Wood), and pharmacists (like Dr. A. W. Miller), who may well be 
astonished at being called botanists. 
But inclusiveness is easier than exclusiveness, and if one can find the 
facts he wants, he may pass by the ones he does not want. The inacces- 
sibility of data about the dead, and the indifference or modesty of the living 
constitute only a few of the difficulties to be overcome in getting up such a 
book as this. The compiler, therefore, deserves cordial recognition for his 
thankless task, and leniency for the shortcomings which are doubtless more 
evident to him than to others. 
interest.— C, R. B 
*HARSHBERGER, JOHN W.: The botanists of Philadelphia and their work. 8vo., 
PP- xii++ 457, al. 48. Philadelphia: The Author. 1899. 
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