Botany. 283 



Stellaria borealis (Alsine borealis, Britton) is one of the com- 

 monest plants in northern New England, extending northward to 

 northern Labrador. The eastern range, as given in the Illustrated 

 Flora, is " Rhode Island to northern New Jersey .... Ascends 

 to 5000 ft. in New Hampshire." 



Ranunculus multiftdus is a common plant from central Maine 

 south westward throughout New England, yet the range given 

 for that species (as R. delphinifolius) is " Ontario to Michigan, 

 south to North Carolina and Missouri." 



Nasturtium sylvestre (Roripa sylvestris, Bess.) grows near 

 streams in Newfoundland and Maine (its occurrence in Maine 

 reported in Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, xix, 340), but the range is 

 stated " from Massachusetts to Virginia and Ohio." 



Myriophyllum alterniflorum is a common plant in Maine waters 

 and it extends to eastern Massachusetts. Its occurrence in Maine 

 was published on the same page as the note on M. Farwellii, a 

 species which Professor Britton has included from that State ; yet 

 in stating the range of 31. alter iiifiorum no intimation is given 

 that it grows in the United States. 



Ligustrum vulgare is one of the commonest shrubs in rocky 

 woods of eastern Massachusetts, recorded as a wild plant by 

 Menasseh Cutler as early as 1785. The range here given is 

 " Ontario and western New York to Pennsylvania and North 

 Carolina." 



Polygonum Careyi is locally abundant from northern Maine to 

 Rhode Island, and its occurrence in Maine was given in Doctor 

 Small's Monograph of the genus, and in his preliminary list (Bull. 

 Torr. Bot. Club, xix, 353) Maine specimens are cited ; yet now 

 the same author gives the range " Ontario to Rhode Island, New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania." 



But perhaps the strangest thing of all is to see our common 

 Lobelia spicata entirely excluded from New England by the 

 range " Ontario to the Northwest Territory, south to North Caro- 

 lina," etc. 



When we consider the multitude of species overlooked or 

 ignored in a region so well represented by good local lists as is 

 New England, it is easily seen what must be the experience of 

 those who examine the Illustrated Flora with eyes familiar with 

 plants of an area less thoroughly explored than that here taken as 

 a standard. 



In one other particular the Illustrated Flora is often disap- 

 pointing. It aims to give in the synonymy of each species the 

 recent current names of the plant. This is a good point and one 

 which will be of great assistance to those who come face to face 

 for the first time with the strange names here taken up ; but it 

 this detail could have been more carefully attended to, the useful- 

 ness of the book as a reference work would be enhanced. It is a 

 disappointment in looking for some familiar name to find it absent, 

 even as a synonym. One of our common elders has been known 

 as Sambucus racemosa, but that name is not mentioned in the 



