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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 791 



sions and investigations it is stimulating. 

 The author, as we learn from a private letter, 

 does not for a moment consider that he has 

 said the final vford on the subject, but hopes 

 that this presentation of his results up to date 

 vciU prove of service, and especially will cause 

 others to study the subject in the field, and 

 gradually put it on a firmer basis. In this he 

 is wholly justified, and whatever we may think 

 about particular disputed matters, we must 

 recognize that he has done an immense serv- 

 ice, in the first place by his researches, and in 

 the second by presenting them in a compact 

 and convenient form, so that all may make 

 use of them. No one, in future, will pretend 

 to study the plants of Colorado or Wyoming 

 without a copy of Nelson's " Manual " by his 

 side. 



I have had the curiosity to count the num- 

 ber of species admitted as valid in the new 

 manual, which were undescribed at the time 

 of publication of the first edition, in 1885. 

 The number is T87, about 28 per cent, of the 

 whole flora. This count includes all specific 

 names first published since 1885, but does not 

 include varietal names proposed prior to that 

 date, and given specific standing later. Of 

 the 78Y, no less than 244 were proposed by 

 Professor Aven Nelson himself; 152 are by 

 Dr. Eydberg, of the New York Botanical Gar- 

 den and 148 by Dr. E. L. Greene, now of the 

 TJ. S. National Museum, but at one time a 

 resident of Colorado. The other authors are 

 as follows: Elias Nelson, 20; Jones (of Utah), 

 18; Scribner (grasses), 17; Vasey, 15; Coul- 

 ter and Eose (TJmbelliferse), 15; Bailey 

 (mainly Car ex), 13; Osterhout (of Colorado), 

 12; Small, 11; Eastwood (formerly of Colo- 

 rado), 10; Britton, 10; Wooton (of New Mex- 

 ico), Nash and Sheldon, each 5; Goodding (of 

 Wyoming), Trelease and K. Schumann (Cac- 

 tacese), each 4; Sargent, J. G. Smith, Bicknell, 

 Piper and Porter, each 3; A. S. Hitchcock, 

 Beal, Vasey and Scribner, O. Kuntze, Howell, 

 Eobinson, Eamaley, Blankinship (of Mon- 

 tana), Henderson and Leiberg, two each; 

 Underwood, Mason, D. 0. Eaton, Macoun, 

 Nash and Eydberg, Scribner and Williams, 

 Holm, Eernald, Bebb, Ball, Coulter and 



Fisher, Canby and Eose, Pax, Huth, Coek- 

 erell. Vail, Eaton, Coulter, Wiegand, Hol- 

 zinger. Nelson and Cockerell, Mackenzie, 

 Pammel, E. G. Baker, Leveille, Coulter and 

 Evans, Wight and Wright, one each. 



Thus the three principal workers have con- 

 tributed 544 between them, 65 have been pub- 

 lished by miscellaneous residents of the region 

 covered by the manual, 168 by American bot- 

 anists not resident in the Eocky Mountains 

 and ten by European botanists. 



After aU this, the reader may be astonished 

 to learn that Nelson's work is planned on 

 what are called " conservative " lines, i. e., 

 those of not conserving the names of " crit- 

 ical " or doubtful species. The number of 

 species accepted as valid is 2,733, while no less 

 than 1,788 specific names are rejected as syn- 

 onyms or insufficiently known. Many of those 

 latter were proposed by Professor Nelson him- 

 self, more by Eydberg and Greene. In addi- 

 tion to the large number rejected, very many 

 are not mentioned at all, presumably because 

 the author did not possess specimens. Most 

 of these latter are " critical " forms, but by no 

 means all. Thus Woodsia inexicana, for which 

 Eydberg cites five Colorado localities, is ab- 

 solutely ignored, and there are many instances 

 only a little less striking. It is stated in the 

 preface that the fiora includes the northern 

 half of New Mexico, but we miss not only the 

 rarer endemic plants of that region, but many 

 of the commonest roadside flowers, such as 

 Sphceralcea fendleri, Commelina dianthifolia 

 and Cosmos. On the other hand we find a few 

 species of southern New Mexico, as Rosa siel- 

 lata and Polemonium pterospermum. 



Eydberg, in his recent (1906) " Elora of 

 Colorado," recognized 2,912 species, a number 

 somewhat greater than Nelson admits for his 

 much larger area. As is well known, Eyd- 

 berg treats many of the minor or critical 

 forms as full species, which of course ac- 

 counts for the difference. The quite recent 

 (1909) French edition of Schinz and Keller's 

 " Flora of Switzerland " includes 2,534 species 

 of vascular plants. When we consider the 

 much smaller area of Switzerland, and the 

 greater variety and distinctness of the life- 



