190 



REVIEWS 



Harshberger's Phytogeographic Survey of North America* 



This long expected work on North American plant geography 

 by Professor Harshberger has at last appeared under date of 

 191 1. The writer has divided his work into four parts, and for 

 purposes of review, it will be convenient to consider these divi- 

 sions in their proper order; reserving for the end some general 

 conclusions. 



I. History and Literature of the Botanic Works and 

 Explorations of the North American Continent. To this 

 historical first chapter (pp. 1-39), dealing with the rise and devel- 

 opment of North American floristic botany, much might still be 

 added, and then one would continue to feel the inadequacy of the 

 treatment. For instance, the failure to mention Fernald's work 

 in the Gaspe peninsula (p. 4), Rydberg's on the Canadian Rockies 

 (p. 5), or of Rollick's explorations in Alaska (p. 7) all leave some- 

 thing to be desired in an essay on the history of Canadian and 

 northern botany. Coming down to New England, a fairly com- 

 prehensive survey of botanical activity in that section is given, 

 stretching from John Josselyn's "New England Rarities," 1672, 

 to the work of Robinson and Fernald, of our own times. In a 

 book the preface of which is dated October, 19 10, one would 

 have hoped to find some mention of the recent admirable catalog 

 of Connecticut plants, issued early in 1910, by the Connecticut 

 Botanical Club, but the author does not seem to have known of 

 it, or perhaps not soon enough to get it into his work. 



It is in covering the Middle Atlantic States that we should 



expect the historical portion of this work to be the most precise 



and of greatest value, as it is here that the records of over a 



hundred years are rich and varied. Tracing the early period of 



Green, LeConte, Hosack, and Torrey down to the mid-nineteenth 



* Harshberger, J. W. Phytogeographic Survey of North America. A consider- 

 ation of the phytogeography of the North American continent, including Mexico, 

 Central America and the West Indies, together with the evolution of North Ameri- 

 can plant distribution. Pp. i- Ixiii -1- i - 790. PL I-XVIII-|-f. i - 32, and 

 colored map. William Engelmann, Leipzig, and G. E. Stechert, New York. 

 Price, unbound, $13.00. [Vol. XIII. Die Vegegation der Erde, A. Engler and O. 

 Drude.l 



