278 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 870 



pages of general matter covering tlie main 

 facts of external morphology. The manual 

 proper opens with a general synopsis of the 

 flowering plants followed by an artificial key. 

 Both of these are illustrated with many small 

 figures. In the portion which is descriptive 

 the usual treatment is followed and if one 

 were to open the book at almost any page he 

 would scarcely know that he was consulting 

 a distinctly new book. The descriptions of 

 species are considerably simplified, technical 

 terms being rather rarely used. The species 

 are illustrated rather fully, the illustrations 

 being massed upon full-page plates which are 

 interspersed among the pages of the text. 

 These while rather roughly done are in many 

 cases sufficiently good so ^s to constitute a 

 good help especially for the student who is at- 

 tempting to do the work by himself. The 

 printing is good and the type well selected 

 with perhaps the exception that here and there 

 some portions of the type are quite too large 

 and black. The species are partly decapital- 

 ized, capitals being retained only where the 

 species is based upon a personal name. The 

 introduction of the comma between the spe- 

 cific name and the name of the author is a 

 backward step which we regret, but this can 

 be corrected in a later edition. All in all the 

 present reviewer is favorably impressed with 

 the work which Dr. Stevens has accom- 

 plished, and there is no doubt that it will find 

 a useful place in the literature of botany, es- 

 pecially for the non-technical student. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN BOTANY 



In 1885 Professor John M. Coulter brought 

 out a very handy manual under the title of 

 " Manual of the Botany of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain Region," and many of us by its aid iden- 

 tified the plants we collected in our occasional 

 outings in the western mountains. Some- 

 what over a year ago a new edition was is- 

 sued under the title " New Manual of Botany 

 of the Central Rocky Mountains " (American 

 Book Co., New York, 1909) under the joint 

 authorship of John M. Coulter and Aven 

 Nelson. From the preface we learn that the 

 labor of revision (or rather of writing the 



new book) fell to Dr. Nelson, the accom- 

 plished professor of botany in the University 

 of Wyoming. The area covered is practically 

 the same as that attempted in the earlier edi- 

 tion, namely Colorado and Wyoming, the 

 most of Montana, southern Idaho, eastern 

 Utah, northern New Mexico and Arizona, 

 with an eastern fringe including the Black 

 Hills of South Dakota and the higher por- 

 tions of the Great Plains. 



The book has been modernized by the 

 adoption of the Engler and Prantl sequence 

 of families, and a nomenclature that con- 

 forms " as far as practicable " to that sanc- 

 tioned by the Vienna Congress. Thus we have 

 a moderate amount of deeapitalization of 

 specific names, and the consistent use of 

 double citation of authors' names when neces- 

 sary. In this connection we note with pleas- 

 ure not only the citation of authors' names, but 

 also in every case the citation of the original 

 paper or publication in which the name first 

 appeared. Of course in following the Vienna 

 rules the author discards names which are 

 identical for the genus and species, as Tarax- 

 acum taraxacum. The book has thus a vein of 

 conservatism in spite of the fact that the au- 

 thor is fairly radical in the subdivision of 

 some of the genera. 



The handy summary shows that the author 

 has " accepted " 2,733 species and 186 vari- 

 eties in his treatment and regarded as syno- 

 nyms of some of these 1,788 more, making a 

 total of 4,707 " species " as they are regarded 

 by some botanists. 



The book will probably prove as useful to 

 tourists and more serious collectors in the 

 Rocky Mountain region as its predecessor, 

 and both the earlier and the later authors are 

 to be congratulated upon the new life of use- 

 fulness which will be accorded the new book. 



BOTANICAL NOTES 



Among recent papers may be noted the fol- 

 lowing : 



" The Conditions of Parasitism in Plants," 

 by D. T. MacDougal and W. A. Cannon 

 (Carnegie Institution, 1910), discusses briefly 

 dependent nutrition in seed plants, the root 



