796 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 4(;8. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 

 ANOTHER FERN BOOK. 



Under the simple title of ' Ferns ' Dr. C. 

 E. Waters, of Baltimore, has added another 

 book of 362 large octavo pages to the quite 

 creditable list of popular treatises on the ferns 

 of the northeastern United States, and it has 

 been given fitting form by the publishers. Holt 

 and Company, of New York City. The work 

 is intended for amateurs, and is in fact a 

 popular manual based on analytical keys which 

 can be used for the identification of ferns 

 whether fruiting or not. This is accomplished 

 by having, in addition to the usual key based 

 on the fructification, another which makes use 

 of characters derived from the stalks alone. 

 In this the number and shape of the fibro- 

 vascular bundles are of primary importance, 

 but to these are added other characters, as the 

 size, color, ridges, grooves, etc., of the surface 

 of the stalks. For the bundle characters good 

 diagrams are used, and throughout the work 

 there are about two hundred admirable ' half- 

 tone ' reproductions of photographs, which 

 must prove very helpful to the student, whether 

 amateur or professional. The keys refer to 

 fuller descriptions of each species, and these 

 are all that one could wish in a book of this 

 kind. Thete is first a short, somewhat tech- 

 nical description (in smaller type), and this 

 is followed by a popular account which runs 

 on with a charming freedom from convention- 

 ality. There is no attempt to treat every 

 species in the same manner; on the contrary, 

 the author seems purposely to have varied his 

 treatment, often making an apt quotation of 

 a stanza or two from some poem. 



The nomenclature is nearly that of a decade 

 or two ago, but modem synonyms are given 

 sufficiently to make the book usable by those 

 who have access only to very recent manuals. 

 It is of little moment in a book of this kind 

 what nomenclature is used, and for this reason 

 the omission of the authority for the species 

 is of no consequence. It is sufficient to say 

 that the author knows ferns so well that his 

 pronouncement may well be accepted by all 

 amateur students of the ferns. The book 

 should have a wide circulation among the 

 large number of people who love ferns and 



want to know something about them. It will 

 also be found to be a very useful book in the 

 library of the ijrofessional botanist. 



ST. LOUIS AND THE BOTANISTS. 



In a few weeks the botanists of the country 

 will have the opportunity of visiting St. Louis 

 in order to attend the meetings of the botan- 

 ical section (6) of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, and the af- 

 filiated societies. The botanical attractions 

 are unusually great in St. Louis. The Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden, with its wealth of 

 living plants in the extensive hothouses, and 

 the out-of-door plantations covering many 

 acres of ground, will interest every botanist 

 who visits it. Then there is the garden her- 

 barium, one of the largest in America, and 

 very rich in type specimens, and also the col- 

 lections of botanical works constituting the 

 large garden library. Here are the specimens 

 and books which Dr. George Engelmann 

 studied and used, and here are the rooms and 

 buildings in which he worked. To the younger 

 generation of botanists these associations 

 should be unusually attractive, for it is help- 

 ful to see where and with what means those 

 who preceded us have done their work. There 

 should be a full attendance of botanists at 

 these meetings. 



THE economic PLAINTS OF PORTO RICO. 



Several years ago O. F. Cook and G. N. 

 Collins were sent by the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture to Porto Eieo to 

 make investigations in regard to the agricul- 

 ture of the island. One result of their work 

 has been the preparation of a thick pamphlet 

 of somewhat more than two hundred octavo 

 pages consisting of an annotated list of Porto 

 Rican plants of economic importance. It 

 appears as one of the ' Contributions from the 

 United States National Herbarium ' (Vol. 

 VIIL, part 2), under the supervision of the 

 curator of botany, Mr. F. V. Coville. 



In the short introduction reference is made 

 to the books on the plants of the island, in 

 which the authors say that " the botany of 

 Porto Eico is far from complete, and very 



