414 BOTANICAL GAZETTE {may 
food plants of the Old World, it is especially full and accurate in the dis- 
cussion of the esculents of the New World; (5) StuRTEVANT presents much 
new information on the variations that have been produced in plants by 
cultivation; (6) the book adds much to geographical botany; (7) many data 
are contributed toward the study of acclimatization 
The material contained in the book was compiled from the notes and 
manuscripts of the late Dr. E. Lewts Sturtevant, first Director of the New 
York Agricultural Experimental Station, and represents the labors of at least 
a quarter of a century. The editor and his assistants have had no light task 
in selecting from the large mass of partially organized material, and in verifying 
and organizing the bibliography, which includes some 6000 citations contained 
in 500 publications. This task of organization seems to have been well done. 
The information is arrayed in encyclopedic entries under the scientific name 
of the plant. To further facilitate reference there is an index of common 
names. The articles vary in length from a few lines for many of the less 
important plants to six or eight pages for such plants as beet, potato, tomato, 
and strawberry, and twelve pages for squash, pumpkin, and corn 
A portrait of SrURTEVANT, a biographical sketch, and a bibliography of 
his writings add to the interest of the volume. Its comprehensive nature, 
including reference to some 3000 plants, its close attention to historical and 
geographic data, and its numerous citations of literature make it invaluable 
for reference. It greatly expands and often corrects details of the knowledge 
formerly available through such works as DE CANDOLLE’s Origin of cultivated 
plants. It is excellently printed, remarkably low priced, and is available for 
purchase from the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, N.Y.— 
EO. D. FULLER. 
Devonian floras 
ARBER’s* posthumous volume, which was sent to the press by the deceased 
author’s wife and his friend D. H. Scorr, gives a very welcome general survey 
of the Devonian floras. There is comparatively little known of the Devonian 
plants, and a great deal of what was formerly attributed to Devonian turned 
out to be of a later geologic age. On the other hand, the great discoveries of 
lower Devonian plants at Rhynie in Scotland, which represent the oldest 
as type of land plants, had given a renewed interest to Devonian paleo- 
botan 
aie divides the fossil plants of the Devonian formation into two floras. 
The first and older division, which he calls Psilophyton flora, is represented by 
those low pteridophytes of which some types had already been described by 
Sir Witt1AM Dawson in 1850, and whose affinities have remained so doubtful. 
The latest addition to this group is the newly discovered plants from Rhynie. 
4 Arner, E. A. NewEtt, Devonian floras, a study of the origin of Cormophyta- 
8vo. pp. xiv+1oo. figs. 47. Cambridge. 1921. 
