245 



immense amount of original obser\ation by many stucl(?nts over 

 many years. There is a brief introduction, describing the geo- 

 graphic, geologic, and ecologic aspects of the area, which is in a 

 general way a circle of fifteen miles radius with the Capitol as 

 the center and which has yielded 1,630 species of native and 

 naturalized plants here formally listed, with records of habitat, 

 distribution, and common names. Numerous other species, found 

 adventive or as waifs are mentioned in notes and there are 

 occasional critical comments on relationship, morphology, uses 

 and other features. 



The Catalogue is preceded by a key to the families based 

 mainly on vegetative characters and by another key to the 

 families based mainly on floral characters, these two keys occu- 

 pying 30 pages of the book, and they have been very ingeniously 

 worked up; there is a generic key for each family and a species 

 key for each genus. The families have not been grouped in 

 orders, which is to be regretted. As a rule, the ke^'s are detailed 

 and complete enough to effect the determination of species, 

 assuming a general knowledge of the flora by the student using 

 the work. V'^arieties or races are ver^^ sparingly admitted and 

 the recognition of species is commendably sane. Thus only 

 seven species of Crataegus are listed, only 6 Ruhi, only 3 Lacin- 

 arias, and only 6 Antennarias, with an apology for one of them. 

 OenotJiera biennis is very properly disposed of as "an extremely 

 variable species . . . considered to consist of numerous 'ele- 

 mentary' species.' " Generic ranks are for the most part liberally 

 recognized, perhaps not in all families consistently, this doubtless 

 referable to the very considerable number of collaborators 

 (twenty-two). It would be most unfortunate to have any- 

 thing like that number of students of the same turn of mind; 

 thus Padus is not separated from Primus, while Persicaria is 

 kept out of Polygonum. 



A few generic names replace those in ordinary usage, as 

 Bilderdykia for Tiniaria and Campe for Barbarea, having priority 

 of publication. Several specific names are likewise strangers, 

 due to bibliographic research and the more correct application 

 of names to type-specimens, noteworthy those ferreted out by 



