126 



their chosen haunts. We are often told of the liking of 

 various ferns for limestone rocks, and the slender cliff- 

 brake and walking fern are cited as instances, but the 

 liking of the woodsia and selaginella for trap rock seems 

 fully as pronounced, though seldom commented upon. 

 It would be interesting to know whether these two species 

 ever grow in as great profusion away from their favorite 

 soil. 



BOOK NEWS. 



One of the results of the recent stay in California of 

 Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Saunders is a series of a dozen panels 

 from water-color drawings of f< California Wild 

 Flowers " by Mrs. Saunders. These have been repro- 

 duced by the three-color photo process and in coloring 

 closely simulate the originals. The artist has not only 

 been happy in her selection of subjects, but in the dec- 

 orative arrangement of the drawings has shown much 

 artistic ability. Accompanying each drawing is a sheet 

 of excellent descriptive text which we suspect is the work 

 of Mr. Saunders. The price of the set of drawings is 

 $1.50. 



It would be difficult to find a work requiring more care 

 and labor than the " Index Filicum " 1 of which Carl 

 Christensen has issued the first four fascicles. In this 

 work the author contemplates making a volume that will 

 stand in relation to ferns much as " Index Kewensis " 

 stands to flowering plants. When completed the " Index 

 Filicum " will consist of three parts ( 1 ) a systematic 

 enumeration of the genera, (2) an alphabetical enumera- 

 tion of the species and synonyms, and (3) an alphabetical 

 catalogue of fern literature. The first three fascicles 

 begin the list of species and synonyms and carry it 

 through 192 pages to Cyathca. Among the large genera 

 included are Adiantum, Asplcnium, Botrychium and 



1 Index Filicum by Carl Christensen. To be published in 

 about 12 parts. 75 cents a part. 4 parts issued. Copenhagen, 

 Denmark; H. Hagerups Boghandel, 1905. 



