-6 9 - 



may return with another dead name, galvanize it into life and 

 therewith undo the work of his predecessor. And so the merry- 

 Science of Nomenclature goes on. We can never be sure that 

 the last change has been made in the name of any genus. From 

 their very obscurity and general worthlessness, most of the 

 pamphlets like Todaro's have been consigned to oblivion; but 

 who will assure us that after we have settled down to "stable 

 nomenclature," some inquisitive student, delving in the waste- 

 basket of time, may not get hold of another pamphlet and treat us 

 to an earthquake. We need stability more than we need priority 

 and the two seem incompatible by present methods. For the 

 ordinary student of ferns who would be understood, there seems 

 no way out of the dilemma except to stick to the names iised in all 

 but the very latest botanical text books; to establish a priority of 

 those names who got there first and stayed, and not allow them 

 to be ousted by new comers, even if they can prove their claims 

 to hoary antiquity. It is not which name ought to prevail, but 

 which one did, that should concern us. 



BOOK NEWS. 



The fourth fascicle of Howell's 14 Flora of Northwest Ameri- 

 ca " was issued March 2i, igoi. It covers the families between 

 the Composite and Boraginacete, following essentially the ar- 

 rangement of Gray's Manual. 



Prof. Peck's recent publications upon the edible mushrooms 

 of New York State have been in such demand that he has reissued 

 them in the form of a memoir, which is essentially the second 

 volume of his descriptions and illustrations of the edible and poi- 

 sonous fungi of New York. The present volume is entitled " Me- 

 moirs of the New York State Museum, Vol 3 No. 4," and bear 

 date of Nov., 1900. 



The fact that Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright has the faculty of 

 treating all out-door subjects in a fresh and original vein is again 

 made plain by the appearance of "Flowers and Ferns in their 

 Haunts"! The book is a chronicle of the author's impressions 

 during a summer's ramblings through field and wood in Connecti- 

 cut, in which the flowers come in for the greatest share of atten- 



t Flowers and Ferns in their Haunts, by Mable Osgood Wright. New 

 York: The Macmillan Co. 1901. 8vo. pp. 258. 



