918 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 494. 



botanical volumes promised, and includes the 

 results of exploration in the field of the lowest 

 plants. How little was hitherto known of 

 some of the lower plants of this region is force- 

 fully illustrated among the fungi, in which 

 group only fifteen species had been definitely 

 reported from Alaska prior to this publication. 

 That there was no professional mycologist 

 present with the expedition will account for 

 the fact that only 252 species of fungi were 

 collected by the members of the expedition or 

 are reported for the first time in this volume. 

 With conditions as favorable as those indi- 

 cated in the introduction, the number collected 

 might readily have been quadrupled, for a 

 thousand species of fungi would be only an 

 average collection to be picked up in almost 

 any favorable locality, by a professional 

 mycologist. Most of the species that were 

 collected were due to the sharp eyes of Pro- 

 fessor Trelease, who collected also most of the 

 lichens, mosses and hepatics that were secured 

 by the expedition. It is wholly reasonable 

 to suppose that the results of the present ex- 

 pedition represent only from one eighth to one 

 tenth of the entire fungus flora of Alaska 

 when fully known, for we must realize that 

 Alaska with its islands and peninsulas, if 

 spread on the map of the rest of the United 

 States with its upper corner at St. Paul, Min- 

 nesota, would extend from Savannah, Georgia, 

 very nearly to Santa Barbara, California, and 

 cover eight states and parts of a dozen more. 



Among the fungi the new species are not 

 excessive, amounting to thirty-eight, of which 

 twenty-eight are by Saccardo or Saccardo and 

 Scalia, five are by Trelease, one by Bresadola 

 and four by Peck. By far the largest num- 

 ber are from the ascosporous series (including 

 the Fungi imperfecti). The forty species of 

 rusts form a smaller ratio to the whole than 

 would naturally be expected. A useful host- 

 index concludes the story of the fungi. 



The ' Lichens of Alaska,' by Professor Clara 

 E. Cummings, of Wellesley, occupies 82 pages, 

 and includes a review of the work of previous 

 collections from the region, so that the total 

 of 462 species from Alaska doubtless repre- 

 sents more than half of the actual lichen flora 

 of the region that complete exploration will 



ultimately make known. A most valuable 

 addition to this part of the work is the series 

 of keys to the species in each of the genera 

 which clearly demonstrates the belief we have 

 always held that, however much the early 

 writers on American lichens struggled with a 

 stilted and pedantic language to bury from 

 view the easily discernible characters of the 

 plants they described, lichens really possessed 

 characters that could be easily tabulated when 

 they were approached in a really rational way. 

 The success with which the author has accom- 

 plished this is greatly to her credit and adds 

 a most valuable feature to this portion of the 

 book. 



The part on the ' Algse,' by Professor 

 Saunders has already been published in ad- 

 vance of its appearance here, and is reprinted 

 in the volume at hand with a careful preserva- 

 tion of the original pagination, so that citation 

 from the original publication can be made 

 from the present work with ease and accuracy. 

 In the presence of so many lamentable fail- 

 ures on the part of editors to make this course 

 possible, this feature is worthy of the highest 

 commendation. The list contains 380 species 

 of algse, nearly two thirds of which were new 

 to Alaska at the time of publication. 



The ' Mosses of Alaska ' also represents a 

 reprint originally published in 1902 by Cardot 

 and Theriot; 280 species are included. The 

 hepatics by Professor Evans is also a reprint; 

 the Harriman expedition nearly doubled the 

 list in this group, the number of species now 

 known from Alaska reaching 80. 



The final portion of the work is by Professor 

 Trelease and includes the ferns and fern allies. 

 Seventy-four species are included in the list, 

 which represents a large series when one con- 

 siders so large an area belonging to a subarctic 

 region, and yet when we consider that the cen- 

 tral Calif ornian 'golden-back' fern (Ceropteris 

 triangularis) is found as far north as Cape 

 Nome we are forced to the conclusion that 

 there are climatic conditions existing in the 

 Alaskan region that are favorable to the 

 growth of plants of a much lower latitude as 

 compared with other boreal parts of the earth. 

 The plant figured as Botrychium lunaria in- 

 cisum as ' new to Alaska ' is quite typical 



