October 16, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



575 



The figures always mortise in beside the de- 

 scriptions with which they belong, and are all 

 that could be asked. Sharp and clear, without be- 

 ing conventional or diagrammatic, they give an 

 exact and adequate notion of the plant. By such 

 aids, especially in a family like that of the 

 grasses, the beginner can not but be stimulated 

 and assisted where assistance is so much needed. 

 And for the advanced student of species these 

 figurep, presenting so cleverly the plant at a 

 glance, cannot fail to be of the greatest interest. 

 It is an exceedingly difficult matter to plan 

 illustrations of this sort that shall at once illus- 

 trate and be practicable in size and shape. In 

 this instance all the difficulties seem to have 

 been met intelligently, and the figure in each 

 instance strikes one as exactly what was wanted. 



The generic and family descriptions are con- 

 structed upon a systematic and logical plan 

 similar to that of the species descriptions. Fol- 

 lowing the generic description in each case 

 where more than one genus is represented in 

 the general range of the work, is a key to the 

 genera. This in many instances is a simple 

 enough matter, but in some cases is constructed 

 with great care under conditions of extreme 

 difficulty. This is notably true for the genus 

 Carex, where the key covers six pages and a 

 half and is subdivided with much nicety. A 

 few tests of this key to Carex induces one to 

 believe that it is the most practicable one that 

 has been fashioned for the genus. The same 

 -encomium may be affiarded the keys to Salix, 

 Poa and Panicum. That of Scirpus has both- 

 ered the reviewer when tested, principally on 

 account of the frequency, in his region, of de- 

 pauperate forms. In such a flora the keys are 

 of great practical importance, and it is a source 

 of much astonishment to the reviewer that a 

 •careful examination of them fails to show any 

 important oversights, for such failures on the 

 part of analytical keys have come, by experience, 

 to be considered plainly essential and of the 

 very inner and peculiar nature of such mechan- 

 isms. 



The wise principles of generic limitation 

 adopted in this flora need no especial comment, 

 for they will commend themselves to all mod- 

 ern minded students. Nor is it necessary to 

 a.llude to the scientific nomenclature. This is 



very conservative, adhering closely to the Eo- 

 chester agreement and not even accepting such 

 iijiprovements as the decapitalization of the 

 specific name. It is not too much to say that 

 with the appearance of this work there ceases 

 to be a nomenclature question in American plant 

 taxonomy. There does not now exist any 

 other nomenclature than the nomenclature of 

 the Rochester agreement. Such a result can 

 not but be a cause for extreme felicitation, for 

 while everywhere admitted to be a non-essen- 

 tial and to a degree a triviality of botanical 

 science, nomenclature has been one of the mat- 

 ters that pressed strongly for final and logical 

 settlement. This flora of Dr. Britton, far the 

 best yet published in America, so admirably 

 combines right nomenclature with right de- 

 scription that there can be no further difficulty, 

 nor, I suspect, will there even be regret over 

 the final interment of the whole question. 



Here and there adverse criticism could be 

 directed against this Illustrated Flora if one 

 were anxious to make out a case against it. It 

 might be grumbled at as a 'picture book;' it 

 might be accused of formalism, or one might 

 point out that genera were divided where they 

 should be combined or combined where they 

 should be divided. But the whole plan of the 

 enterprise so exactly corresponds to what the re- 

 viewer believes to be the best scientific standard 

 that he is disarmed even from criticizing the 

 ranges — which are sometimes, as always in 

 local floras, too restricted — and point out that 

 (for example) Cystopteris bulbifera grows in 

 Minnesota, while the Flora brings it west no far- 

 ther than Wisconsin. Just such a book as this 

 has been needed for the past ten years — a period 

 of great botanical expansion — and the authors 

 may feel that they have earned the thanks of 

 all those who desire botanical interest to con- 

 tinue to grow in the future as it has in the 

 past. 



The publishers of the Illustrated Flora have 

 brought it out in a dignified form, printed upon 

 a carefully selected paper and neatly bound. 

 At the really nominal price which has been set, 

 this work ought to be in the library of every 

 high-school, academy and college in the country. 



Indeed if a high-school library could afford 

 to buy but one work in botany this Illustrated 



