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M, Botany, for 1901 has just been received, though it is dated 

 May 1902. It is a small octavo of 378 pages giving : (1) An 

 author's catalogue in which the titles of something like 2,100 

 botanical papers issued during last year are listed, followed by 

 (2) A subject catalogue in which the same titles appear under 

 ■one or more topics arranged on a numerical system which is 

 practically a reclassification of the Dewey system with the points 

 omitted. Under each of the major divisions of the subject 

 Taxonomy occur lists of new species published in the papers 

 •cited. 



As the Society announces the further issuance of a second part 

 •during the year to complete the record of the world's botanical 

 literature for 1901, they have for the present disarmed criticism 

 along a very important line, namely completeness. As the 

 annual output of botanical literature during the past decade has 

 ranged from 5,ouO to 8,000 titles, it will be necessary for the 

 second part to be considerably larger than the present one. Tak- 

 ing a random half dozen well-known American contributors 

 whose titles for 1901 have been published elsewhere, the present 

 volume gives less than one half of their contributions to botany, 

 and for some not over one third of them. 



The enormous work entered upon by the Society can better 

 be seen when we learn that botany is only one of the seventeen 

 subjects whose literature is being listed in this series of publi- 

 cations. 



The strongest criticism that can be made on the system 

 aside from the question of completeness is that it is a book 

 instead of a card catalogue. When, for example, the year 1925 

 is reached, not to look farther into the future, one will be 

 obliged to consult twenty-five individual author catalogues to 

 find a given article by any desired author unless its exact date 

 is known in advance. One will be obliged to consult the same 

 number of subject catalogues to find the summary of literature 

 on any one subject, as, e. g., the Hepaticae, for the period 

 covered. Until the European library system attains the efficiency 

 of the American in adopting the standard card catalogue, such a 

 publication may involve practical difficulties, but it is the only 



