1897.) Botany. 981 
exhaustive minuteness, and it is not too much to say that, for a large 
portion of the two regions in which this territory falls, Professor Mac- 
Millan’s work upon the floral elements will be found to be substan- 
tially final. But in the present paper, the author has done much 
more. He has given a sketch of the shore and beach vegetation from 
the standpoint of ecology, and a résumé of the formations which it 
presents. Although several papers of minor importance have dealt 
with certain aspects of some ecological und formational problems, 
Professor MacMillan has undoubted right to the honor of being the 
first in the field in this country, if not indeed in the English tongue, 
with an account of extended research in these lines. Pointing this out 
with pardonable pride, he has offered his contribution as an incentive 
to others to undertake and to continue a sort of botanical work which 
stands in need of many investigators, The author is emphatically a 
man of ideas, as he has demonstrated in more than one department, 
and his contribution at this time, when investigation in this country is 
but beginning, is weleome and opportune. 
At the ontset, it should be noted that the author’s standpoint is 
purely ecological, not phytogeographical. He is concerned solely 
with the physical environment of the plants of the locality, not with 
the biological environment that in so many instances proves of no less 
moment, It is not easy to make distinctions of this sort, since they 
depend largely upon the point of view of each writer. But, in general, 
the phytogeographer looks primarily at the floral covering as such. 
He studies, analyzes, and traces the development of the floral covering 
as a whole, and in restricted areas. For this purpose, he brings to bear 
his knowledge of the physical and biological environment and of the 
plants themselves as well, their morphological adaptations as shown in 
primary and secondary biological characters, modifications for pur- 
poses of duration, seed-production, dissemination and so forth. But 
the ecological phytogeographers appear to restrict themselves for the 
most part to the investigation of certain aspects of the relation of the 
floral covering to its physical environment. This investigation is, 
without doubt, of great importance, but the limitations of such a pro- 
cedure appear clearly in the paper under review. 
The discussion of the physical conditions prevailing upon the shores 
at Lake of the Woods is a masterpiece of analysis. Everything has 
been taken into account, and every modification which might affect the 
floral covering has been investigated and pointed out. This analysis 
has been made not only with reference to the more important factors 
—water-content, illumination and temperature, but also with reference 
