4 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
It is published by P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., 1012 Walnut street, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 
‘«The Butterflies of the West Coast of the United States,’’ by Wil- 
liam Greenwood ee San Francisco, the Whitaker & Ray Co., 1905; 
Ds, 27, WINE, IPI, lay. 
California ae every reason to be proud of Mr. Wright’s handsome 
quarto. Paper and presswork are of the best style of bookmaking, while ~ 
the plates present the highest attainment of the art of photographic color 
printing. It is not too high praise to say of them that they equal in 
beauty, and excel in life-like accuracy, the hand colored plates of Ed- 
ward’s great work on the North American butterflies. 
In interest and importance the matter is worthy of this fine dress. 
For twenty-five years the author has been a diligent student of the 
‘lepidoptera of western America. His field observations have been car- 
ried on from Alaska to Mexico, so that he knows intimably the life- 
history of almost every species that inhabits that vast territory. The 
work of so ripe a student, and in a field so little explored, the book is 
naturally full of new and valuable matter. 
The first 32 pages are occupied with a discussion of the general 
features of butterfly life. This is succeeded by a complete list of the 
Butterflies of the United States, in which those of the western coast are 
distinguished by heavy-face type. This brings us to hte main body of 
the work; a description of all the known species and varieties of Butter- . 
flies on the Pacific slope. These number 483, and all but 53 of them 
are illustrated by from one to seven figures, portraying them in their 
natural colors and in different aspects. The descriptions, while sufficient, 
are not in technical form, but may be readily understood by any one. 
In connection with the pictures, this should enable one quite unac- 
quainted with entomology to idtntify most of the butterflies he may see. 
In all there are 487 of these beautiful figures. Twenty-nine new species 
and varieties are here first published. There are also many interesting 
notes on the habits, range, and other facts connected with the life- 
historv of the various species. 
The book is destined to remain as the permanent foundation stone 
of our knowledge of the western American butterflies. 
Sh 1B, 12, 
RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 
‘‘North American Species of Agrostis,’’ by A. S. Hitchcock. Bull. 68, 
Bureau Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 1905. Pp. 68. Pl. 
1-37. 
The territory included in this revision extends from Labrador to the 
Valley of Mexico. The genus is seen to be poorly represented in this 
vast region, only 27 species being recognized by the author. For the 
most part it is a genus of the north, and southward occurs chiefly at high 
altitudes. While the paper is no mere study in nomenclature, the author 
has found reason for changing the names of all the Southern California 
species, exceptA, alba, L., and A. microphylla, teud. The Bear Valley 
erass which has passed as A. equivalvis, Trin., is here considered to be 
A. Rosse, Vosey, while another mountain grass, heretofore included in 
A. scabra, Willd., is here referred to A. Scheidiana, Trin. A. scabra 
itself, by the revival of an earlier specific name, becomes A. hyemalis, 
B. S. P. Sibthorp having previously used the name for another grass, 
Vasey’s A. tennis takes the name A, idadoensis, Nash. A. asperifolia, 
Trin., of Abram’s Flora, is included in the older A. exarata, Trin., as it 
was by Thurber, in the Botany of California. Finally, A. Fiegoeusis, 
Vasey, proves identical with the previously published A. foliosa, Vasey, 
