910 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1016 



Tourists in tlie Rocky Mountains have 

 waited long for such a book as this, and we 

 hazard the guess that it will be eagerly ac- 

 cepted by them as the manual which will en- 

 able them to recognize and name the flowers 

 they find on the high plains and in the 

 mountain canyons. For such people the 

 colored plates of approximately two hundred 

 species, and the black and white plates, of not 

 far from three hundred more, will prove most 

 helpful. But aside from tourists and other 

 summer residents of the Rocky Mountains 

 there is a still larger class of people who will 

 welcome this attractive book. For, contrary to 

 the opinion of many who have never crossed 

 the Great Plains, there are schools and col- 

 leges and universities with their students and 

 teachers interested in the plant life about 

 them. And to these we may add an increasing 

 number of people who are interested in plants 

 because they love them. In fact, these great 

 highlands of the United States are coming 

 to contain very many people to whom such a 

 book as this will appeal very strongly. We 

 can not imagine a better book for the high 

 school libraries of the west, or for that matter 

 for the libraries of the western colleges and 

 universities. The beautiful plates, which were 

 made by the junior author, must appeal to 

 every pupil with any esthetic sense, as they 

 must also to many cultured people outside of 

 the schools. 



The chief features of the book are its gen- 

 eral key to families, in which the treatment 

 is distinctly non-technical, accompanied by a 

 chart of relationship that should make the 

 determination of the family relatively easy. 

 Following these are the Dicotyledonous orders, 

 and families, followed later by the Monocoty- 

 ledonous orders and families, with keys, again, 

 to the genera, and later to the species. Here 

 a useful feature is emphasized in giving 

 rather fully the etymology of the generic 

 names, a matter that will be appreciated espe- 

 cially by those who are not privileged to be 

 in the classes of scholarly teachers. Each 

 genus is briefly characterized, and following 

 this the species are indicated by a key in 

 which as many descriptive features as possible 



are emphasized. In passing it should be 

 pointed out that the plates always include 

 related plants, so that family relationship is 

 thus emphasized. The black and white plates, 

 again, emphasize the more diiEcult species, 

 notably those of the grasses and sedges. This 

 fact will add much to the usefulness of the 

 book. 



An introduction of nine pages gives some 

 idea of " the general lines of the evolution of 

 flowering plants from the ancestral ferns," 

 and suggests " the relationships of the various 

 groups." The discussion leads up to the 

 " chart of relationship " mentioned above. 



In the preface the authors have something 

 to say about " species " that will show the 

 scientific reader that they have been thinking 

 of the problem of species limits. Of course 

 this preface was not written for high school 

 pupils, nor indeed for the tourist of limited 

 scientific training, but for botanists this short 

 preface will be found to contain some sug- 

 gestive thoughts. 



We are told by the authors that the range 

 of the book includes " Colorado, Wyoming, 

 most of Montana, northern ISTew Mexico, 

 eastern Utah, and western North, and South 

 Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas," and no doubt 

 it may be profitably used in a considerable 

 area oustide of these limits. 



The authors are to be congratulated upon 

 the successful completion of this notable work. 

 Charles E. Besset 



The Univeesitt op Nebraska 



The Life of the Mollusca. By B. B. Wood- 

 WAED. London: Methuen & Co. 1913. 

 12mo. Pp. xii -f 158. PI. XXXn., 1 map. 

 This volume is one of a popular series in- 

 tended to summarize existing published knowl- 

 edge on the subject of which it treats, and not 

 to present fresh information or new researches. 

 It is distinctly not ecological, and, perhaps in 

 deference to British prudishness, omits the 

 existing data on the reproduction of the pul- 

 monates, a body of facts which have more bear- 

 ing on the life of these mollusks and have 

 been more thoroughly observed than any other 

 phases of molluscan life. 



