69 



Except for a general index, the rest of the book consists of 

 keys to the plants of the Wu York region, with three pages of 

 introduction <>n "How t<> Use the Honk." 



In the preliminary key to the groups — the arrangement sur- 

 prisingly resembles that of tin- Medieval botanists who had 

 eyes only and no microscopes — we have six groups as follows: 

 woody plants, vines, aquatic plants, ferns and their allies, 

 herbaceous monocotyledons, herbaceous dicotyledons, and un- 

 usual plants. The group of "unusual plants" includes such 

 oddities as cactus, Indian pipe, horsetails, Lobelia Dortnianna, 

 I/itdsotu'a, asparagus, etc. These leading groups key directly into 

 the single systematic treatment of families, genera, and species 

 which forms the backbone of the book, and to which all paths 

 lead. Here again we have clear line drawings of diagnostic 

 features in groups which would otherwise remain beyond the 

 comprehension of the beginner, despite any key written in 

 words. 



It is a relief to find common names that are actually in use. 

 In the absence of an established common name, the general 

 name of the group is employed for each individual species, thus 

 we find that there are fourteen species of "Bedstraw," twenty- 

 seven "Violets," and the species of many other genera are in 

 similar large proportions. The fact that the common name can 

 be reached in practically all cases without the need of consulting 

 the scientific name will endear this little volume to many of the 

 "thousands of Boy Scouts, hikers, campers, tourists, and gar- 

 deners" for which it was planned. The inclusion of all species 

 growing wild in the New York area except for a few technical 

 groups is sufficient indication that the work is not of a super- 

 ficial character. No single botanist has ever found all the plants 

 mentioned. The reviewer, in going over the book, discovered 

 that there was a total of 255 species which he had never seen 

 growing wild in the New York area, and of this number 140 have 

 never been seen or collected by him anywhere in northeastern 

 United States or Canada. The large majority of these are casual 

 waifs found now and then in cultivated fields or escaped from 

 gardens, but there are some, such as Obolaria, A plectrum hye- 

 male, Cypripedium candidunu and Pogonia divaricata, which are 

 of great rarity, and have been seen by very few botanists. 



There are a few plants growing in the New York area that 



