34 Muhlenbergia, Volume 6 



manuals, representing the latest advance in taxonomy. But the 

 great western portion of our country, where the larger number 

 of species are found, has never been represented by a descriptive 

 flora. Several good local floras have been published, especially 

 in California, but this is the first and only work covering more 

 than a single state that is provided throughout with serviceable 

 keys to both genera and species, laying stress on some individ- 

 ual character whereby the genus or species is separated from its 

 nearest relative. A good workable key is one of the most im- 

 portant things about a manual, and the old style keys scattered 

 through the text have fallen into disrepute because they are both 

 unwieldy and unsatisfactory. 



It is a neat book, remarkably thin for a volume of 646 

 pages, being printed on thin but strong paper, and is tastefully 

 bound in brown-olive. The territory covered is the northern 

 half of New Mexico and adjacent Arizona, all of Colorado, Wyo- 

 ming and the Yellowstone Park, the eastern half of Utah, south- 

 ern Idaho, most of Montana, and the Black Hills of South Da- 

 kota. 



In addition to the index, in the back part of the book are 

 found a glossary, summary, abbreviation of author's names, and, 

 most important of all from the standpoint of the bibliographer, 

 a list of new names and combinations. It is a very easy matter 

 for the author of a book in which new names are published, to 

 keep a record of such names and print a list of them in the back 

 part of the book, and it saves a vast deal of time to those whose 

 business it is to make a record of new names. But the author 

 should be careful to record all of the new names. So far this 

 is only the third work in which such a list has appeared, but it 

 is to be hoped that all future manuals and floras in which new 

 names are published may contain one. 



The sunim.ii \ shows a total of 116 families, 649 genera, 

 2733 accepted species, 1788 synonyms, [86 varieties, and a total 

 of 47" 1 nanus "accounted for in some way." 



As stated in the preface by Dr. Coulter, "the manual is in- 

 truded to represent current knowledge in reference to the flora 

 foi tlu- benefit of 1 1 ie < u'fl i iia i v user of a manual. The profes- 



