166 The American Naturalist. [February, 
panics and general business depression. They are journals of which 
American science has no cause to be ashamed. The two older journals 
include the record of a period of remarkable activity in American 
botany, and it is fair to say that from them has largely come the 
impulse to this activity. We doubt not that a score of years hence 
we may say the same for the much younger journal upon the Pacific 
coast. 
Professor A. S. Hitchcock brought out two handy little books 
during the past year, viz., A Key to the Spring Flora of Manhattan 
(Kansas), and A Key to the Genera of Manhattan Plants Based on 
Fruit Characters. They are full of suggestions to teachers, and must 
be very helpful to students of botany in Eastern Kansas. The 
sequence of families is that of Engler and Prantl. 
Professor L. H. Bailey brought out in the August bulletin of the 
Cornell University Agricultural Experimental Station another of his 
numerous contributions to botany. This one is devoted to The Culti- 
vated Poplars, and with the illustrations and descriptions of the leaves, 
twigs and buds, must prove useful to those who wish to distinguish 
the cultivated species of this interesting genus. 
From the Bulletin of the Michigan Fish Commission (No. 2) we 
have “ The Plants of Lake St. Clair,” by A. J. Pieters, containing 
eleven pages of text and a map. Lists of aquatic plants are given, 
and these are accompanied by a discussion of their distribution at dif- 
ferent depths and under varying conditions. E. B. 
