60 Recent Literature. [January, 
the State, and a reward of three pence a head was offered for 
their destruction. This necessitated the payment of eight thou- 
sand pounds sterling (640,000 individuals having been killed) 
which so depleted the treasury that the premium was decreased 
one-half.” 
The book is readable throughout, and its carefully prepared 
biographical sketches will have a permanent interest. 
Gray’s SYNOPTICAL Fiora.’—Everything .from the pen of Dr. 
Gray is welcomed by the botanists of the country as a contribu- 
tion from one who is a master. A few years ago a volume 
appeared bearing the title Synoptical Flora, which covered the 
ground of the Gamopetalz after Composite. The volume before 
us, which closely resembles its predecessor, includes the gamo- 
petalous orders Caprifoliacee, Rubiacez, Valerianacez, Dipsacee 
and Composite. The two volumes thus cover the whole of the 
North American Gamopetalz, and bring our knowledge of this 
great group down to the present. 
It may be interesting to give here in concise form some of the 
results brought out by this volume. By taking Bentham and 
ooker’s Genera Plantarum and comparing our North American 
composite flora with the composite flora of the world, we find 
that we have representatives of eleven of the thirteen tribes into 
which the order is now divided. We have 235 genera out of 766, 
or about thirty per cent of the whole. Our species (nearly 1500) 
constitute about four per cent of the whole. 
- we look over the tribes we find the per cent of North 
American genera and species to be as follows: 
Per cent of genera,| Per cent of species. 
I, Vernoniacez I 21 
2. Eupatoriacez...... sioi a ach E Be yy 
34 steroidez 36 29 
s leii 10 4 
é Jelenioideze ee 5 30% 
7. Anthemideæ i icy a 
8. Senecionidze 36 8 % 
9. Calendulaceæ . o o : 
to. Arctoidea a aa es o o 
11, Cynaroideæ.... 
12. Mutisiaceæ ae 4% 
13. Cichoriaceae eg aiaa 52 6 a% 
. In like manner 
we observe that the Helenioideæ, Helianthoideæ and Asteroideæ 
1 Synoptical Flora of North America. By Asa Gray, LL.D., F d LS. 
ras Arce "e etc. VoL 1, Past m. Caprifotia “> Samet — ne 
ished e Smithsonian Institution, Washington, N a gp : 
sic, ‘July, 1884, pp. 474. i on. New York, London and Leip- 
