412 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 613. 



a comprehensive treatment to-day of the 

 plants of the region. Several years ago the 

 officers of the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion of Colorado felt the need of having the 

 growing botanical collections of the station 

 determined more accurately than was then 

 possible with the available manuals and other 

 publications, and appealed to the director of 

 the New York Botanical Garden for such help 

 as he could afford them. The ultimate result 

 of this appeal is a well-printed octavo volume 

 of more than 450 pages, entitled the ' Flora 

 of Colorado,' and published as Bulletin 100 

 of the Colorado Experiment Station. It is 

 the work of Dr. P. A. Eydberg, whose ac- 

 quaintance with the Colorado flora is based 

 upon much actual study and field work in dif- 

 ferent parts of the state, in addition to the 

 rich collections in the herbarium of the New 

 York Botanical Garden. It has been known 

 for some time that he has had in preparation 

 a manual of the botany of the whole Eocky 

 Mountain region, and the present volume is 

 thus a sort of prodrome of that work. 



The plan of the book is similar to that of 

 the very useful ' Flora of Pennsylvania,' pre- 

 pared a few years ago by Dr. Porter. By 

 convenient keys in the beginning of the book 

 the orders are sufficiently characterized for 

 recognition; then on the designated page of 

 the volume by another key the families are 

 briefly characterized; and so in like manner 

 under each family is a key to the genera, and 

 under each genus, a key to the species. Fi- 

 nally after the specific key each species is 

 given a separate paragraph, including the 

 authority, habitat, general distribution in 

 North America, particular distribution in 

 Colorado, altitude, and now and then a syn- 

 onym. It is thus a synoptical manual, and 

 has the merit of maintaining the identity of 

 order, family, genus and species, a matter of 

 no small importance to the beginner who 

 wishes to know something more than the mere 

 names of his plants. A failure to maintain 

 such distinctions is a grave fault of many of 

 the local manuals accompanying botanical 

 text-books. Dr. Eydberg's book will no doubt 

 at once become the handbook for the student 



and collector in Colorado, for which it is ad- 

 mirably adapted. 



From the preface we learn that it contains 

 ' over 700 genera, and 2,900 species ' of fern- 

 worts and flowering plants, and that 19J per 

 cent, of these are composites; 9 per cent, 

 grasses (Poaceae) ; 6^ per cent. Fahaceae; 

 5 per cent. Brassicaceae; 3J per cent, sedges, 

 etc. 



The nomenclature is modern, and the treat- 

 ment of genera and species quite radical, yet 

 the author has not published any new genera 

 or species in the book, thus setting a good 

 example, which it is to be hoped will be fol- 

 lowed by other botanists who prepare similar 

 floras. It is a good piece of work, and the 

 officers of the experiment station are to be 

 congratulated upon their liberality and fore- 

 sight in providing for its publication. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN OHAREAE. 



Twenty-seven years ago Dr. B. D. Halsted 

 published in the Proceedings of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History a twenty-page 

 paper entitled the ' Classification and Descrip- 

 tion of the American Species of Characeae,' 

 including characterizations of all of the spe- 

 cies then known in North America, viz., of 

 Niiella 8 species, Tolypella 1, and Chara 9 

 species and 6 varieties. Three years later 

 Braun's ' Fragmente ' increased these numbers 

 to Nitella 21 species, Tolypella 3, and Chara 

 15, besides many varieties and ' forms.' Now 

 we have a paper, ' The Chareae of North 

 America,' published by Dr. Charles B. Eobin- 

 son in the Bulletin of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, which shows what progress has been 

 made in the last quarter of a century in the 

 study of these interesting plants. As indi- 

 cated in the title this paper is limited to the 

 Chareae, a subfamily represented in this 

 country by the genus Chara only, and yet the 

 author finds more species (50) than were re- 

 corded in all our genera by previous students. 

 Of these species fifteen are here described for 

 the first time, while ten varieties are raised to 

 specific rank. Of the new species two each 

 come from New York, New Jersey, Canada, 

 Michigan, Florida and Mexico, while Kansas, 

 New Mexico and Illinois add one each. 



