259 



and not far from the little village of Port Margot. It is not nec- 

 essary that you visit that particular locality, for nearly anywhere 

 in a tropical forest you may see the same thing taking place. In 

 this instance the ungrateful plant was Cliisia, but there are other 

 plants * which gain their ends in the same way. No wonder that 

 in the English-speaking portions of the West Indies this plant 

 has received the name of the " Scotch attorney," for when it once 

 obtains a hold it never lets go while there is anything to be 

 gained. 



George V. Nash. 



New York Botanical Garden. 



REVIEWS 



" Gray's Manual," Seventh Edition t 



The long anticipated seventh edition of " Gray's Manual" has 

 appeared, and proves to be an attractive and carefully prepared 

 work of 926 pages, quite copiously illustrated with small but 

 generally clear and accurate figures scattered throughout the 

 text. The arrangement followed is that of Engler & Prantl, and 

 the plan of prefacing the treatment of the species in a genus with 

 a specific key is generally adopted. The authors, or editors as 

 they designate themselves, Professors B. L. Robinson and M. L. 

 Fernald, of Harvard University, are to be cordially and sincerely 

 congratulated on the successful termination of their work, which 

 not only exhibits on every page the learning for which the 

 authors are so well known, but shows every evidence of pains- 

 taking care and an evident desire to embody the latest researches 



* The last report of the Missouri Botanical Garden has an illustrated paper on 

 " The Florida Strangling Figs" by Dr. Ernst A. Bessey. Two species oi Ficus are 

 described ; one (F. aiirea) having the curious " habit of beginning its growth as an 

 epiphyte and later becoming terrestrial by sending down numerous slender roots which 

 eventually thicken and fuse together, finally wholly surrounding and strangling the 

 host." The seeds of the same species require light in order to germinate ; this pecu- 

 liarity is no doubt related to its epiphytic habit. — Editor. 



f Gray's New Manual of Botany (Seventh Edition — Illustrated). A Handbook 

 of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Central and Northeastern United States and 

 adjacent Canada. Rearranged and extensively revised by Benjamin Lincoln Robin- 

 son and Merritt Lyndon Fernald. Pp. 926. f. I-1036. American Book Company, 

 New York, X908. ^2.50. [Issued September 18.] 



