1910] CURRENT LITERATURE 307 
American ecologists who issue several papers a year, giving the results of a few 
days or weeks of study, may well follow. the example of MaAssart, who has 
minutely studied his restricted Belgian littoral in every season for fifteen years 
and more.—H. C. Cow es. 
A new manual of Rocky Mountain botany 
To those familiar with the Manual of the botany of the Rocky Mountain 
region which has been the standard field book for that section of the country for 
practically a quarter of a century, the appearance of a revised edition? will appeal 
with special interest. The territory covered by the present volume remains 
essentially the same as in the original edition, namely the Rocky Mountain region 
from Montana and southern Idaho to northern New Mexico and Arizona. 
The text in the new edition has been entirely recast; the arrangement of 
families has been brought into the sequence of ENGLER and PRANTL; the descrip- 
tions of the older species in many cases have been rewritten in the light of more 
complete material and printed in uniform type; the results of taxonomic researches 
made on the flora of the region during recent years have been incorporated with 
few exceptions, thus bringing the manual to date; concise and well-contrasting 
keys have been placed at the beginning of all the larger genera; bibliographical 
reference is made to the original publication of species and varieties recognized; 
and limited Synonomy is given, particularly wherever a change of name or new 
combination has been made. These are the salient features which characterize 
the revised edition. 
The circumscription of families continues unchanged; and it is a pleasure to 
see such natural groups as Leguminosae and Compositae remain intact. The 
most striking contrast, however, when compared critically with the first edition, 
is in the matter of generic limitations. Here the reviser has had a difficult task, 
because of the very great botanical activity in exploration and taxonomic publica- 
tion in recent years and the tendency toward segregation. Thus the effort to 
bring together in perfect harmony and to bestow proper value on all genera and 
Species that have been proposed during the past twenty years from the Rocky 
Mountain region alone has been no light undertaking. And to be absolutely con- 
sistent would require essentially a monographic knowledge of every group repre- 
sented within the limits of the flora. The taxonomist, therefore, may find himself 
at variance with the treatment of certain groups as delineated in the text. For 
€xample, Batrachium, Ranunculus, Halerpestes, Onagra, Anogra, Pachylophus, 
Lavauxia, Gaurella, Galpinsia, Meriolix, and Taraxia receive equal generic 
recognition; while other recently segregated groups like Saxifraga, Astragalus, 
Euphorbia, and Mentzelia have been retained in their broader sense, as they are 
* CouLTER, Joun M., New manual of botany of the Central Rocky Mountains 
(vascular plants), revised by AvEN NELson. 8vo. pp. 646. New York, Cincinnati, 
and Chicago: American Book Co. Actual date of publication, December 22, 
1909, 
