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REVIEWS 



Two Popular Hand Books "* 



These two popular works, both having the same object in 

 view, both addressed to the large class of people who, without 

 special training, wish to acquaint themselves with their local 

 plants, have attacked the problem from very different aspects. 



The book written by the Minnesota botanists is "the third of a 

 series intended to render more familiar and usable the plants 

 of the important or interesting groups found in the state." 

 "The text deals with loo genera, represented by 274 species and 

 about 25 varieties." Each order, family, tribe, genus, and species 

 is outlined in excellently drawn descriptions, which contain a 

 minimum of technical terms and, generally speaking, a maximum 

 amount of clearness. Some purely technical characters are 

 perforce used in a work so comprehensive, and it is a question 

 how amateur users of the book are to interpret these; still more is 

 it almost impossible to avoid their use. To partly overcome this 

 difficulty the authors have prepared, in the introduction of 

 twenty pages, an instructive guide to the rest of the book, 

 explaining in detail, and by the aid of several illustrations, the 

 chief characters by which plants are distinguished and how to 

 "work" the keys. 



All the more important shrubs and trees, both native and culti- 

 vated, are included and the authors have also seen fit to let in 

 Epigaea, GauUheria, Chimaphila and Chiogenes as examples of 

 "woody plants of the state." There are excellent keys to the 

 genera and species, including some cultivated plants, explained in 

 nearly every case by a very complete set of figures, illustrating the 

 diagnostic characters used in the keys. ' ' The sequence of families 

 followed in the text is that of the 'Besseyan System,' the mono- 

 cotyledons being placed after the other phyla." This is one of 

 the first modern works to adopt the system in a popular hand- 



* Clements, F. E., Rosendahl, C. O., and Butters, F. K., Minnesota Trees and 

 Shrubs, pp. i-xxi + ii-3i4- [IHust.] University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1912. 

 Price, Si. 00. 



Darling, C. A., Handbook of the Wild and Cultivated Flowering Plants, pp. 

 1-264. Published by C. A. Darling, Columbia University, N. Y. City, 1912. Price, 

 $1.25 postpaid. 



