17 



keys to the local species. A temporary index concludes the volume. 

 As the pages are not numbered the index refers to the numbers of 

 the families which are printed in the upper corners of the pages. 

 Such pages as the table of contents and index bear letters instead 

 of numbers. The present index lists all the plants described in the 

 four volumes already published and also those described in the 

 author's Plants of Hav^'aii National Park, published in 1930. 



The books are bound in cloth, the loose leaves held by screws 

 that are easily removed. Directions with the book advise taking the 

 volumes apart and rearranging the pages by the numbers of the 

 families, then arranging the genera and species alphabetically in the 

 families, and rebinding in convenient units. 



The plates, made under Mr. Degener's supervision by artists he 

 has trained, are practically all from living specimens, are attractive 

 and accurate and make positive determination of the species easy. 

 Apparently volumes are to appear as rapidly as the plates can be 

 made. The magnitude of this undertaking can be understood when 

 we consider that there are at least 2,500 species of ferns and flower- 

 ing plants in the islands for each of which a plate is to be drawn 

 and the description written. 



Book 1 was published in 1933, 2 in 1935, 3 in 1938 and this last 

 volume in 1940. Each new volume increases the value of those 

 already published. It is hoped that the succeeding volumes will 

 appear in an accelerated rate that the whole flora of the islands may 

 be available to botanists and visitors to the islands. The parts so far 

 completed describe a large number of the plants most commonly 

 seen and will do much to increase the pleasure of visitors to the 

 islands who are interested in plants and are essential to botanists 

 making a study of the flora. 



One disadvantage of this method of writing a flora is, as sug- 

 gested, that the pages cannot be numbered, another obvious one is 

 that for some time only a few of the species in larger genera can 

 be described. In the Plants of Hawaii National Park, for example, 

 it is stated that there are over sixty kinds of Bidens in the islands, 

 of which two introduced and four native ones are found in the park 

 and mentioned in this work. In the first three books eight species 

 were described, fifteen more are taken up in book four, evidently 

 some forty more wait description. The great advantage of the 

 method is the appearance of the parts years in advance of the time 



