RFAHl-WS 



North American Flora* 



About ten years ago it was proposed to i)ublisli under the 

 title "Systematic Botany of North America" a descriptive ac- 

 count of all plants L^rowing without cultivation in Xorth America, 

 north of Mexico. As orii^inally planned, the work was to consist 

 of seventeen volumes, eight of which were to be devoted to the 

 Angiosperms. The different families of plants were assigned to 

 specialists for elaboration, and the following botanists constituted 

 the board of editors : Professors Atkinson, Britton, Coulter, 

 Greene, Halsted and Underwood, and Messrs. Coville and Hol- 

 lick. For some reason no part of this work ever reached publi- 

 cation, with the exception of a short pamphlet on the Hepaticae 

 by Professor Underwood, in which the species of the single genus 

 Riccia were described. 



Recent!)', however, it has become possible for the New York- 

 Botanical Garden to assume responsibility for this important un- 

 dertaking and to carry it on in a somewhat more extended sense 

 than was originally intended. The title has been changed to 

 " North American Flora," and the region treated will include 

 not only the whole of the North American continent, north of 

 Colombia, but also the majority of the West Indian islands. 

 The new publication will be edited by Professors Underwood and 

 Britton and will consist of thirty volumes. Thirteen of these 

 will be devoted to the Thallophytes, two to the Bryophytes, one 

 to the Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms, and the remainder to 

 the Angiosperms. The parts will be issued as rapidly as possible, 

 and different volumes will be in course of publication at the same 

 time. 



The part that has just appeared may serve to indicate the plan 

 of the whole work and treatment which the various groups are 

 to receive, although it is possible that this treatment will have 

 to be more or less modified in the case of some of the lower cr}-p- 



* \i)ith American Flora, 22 : I-80. Resales, by J. K. Small ; Podostemonaceae, 

 by G. V. Nash; Crassulaceac, by N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose; Pentlioraceae and 

 Parnassiaceae, by P. A. Rydberg. The New ^'ork IJotanical Garden, 22 My 1905. 



