THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



39 



sold very slowly. This announcement gives a side light on 

 fern study that will be of interest tO' those planning books on 

 ferns. As a matter of fact, the many popular books for the 

 identification of ferns has afforded the public a short cut to 

 the names, and the more formal text-books are no longer 

 bought. 



The ''Botanical Textbooklet" mentioned in these pages 

 some time ago, grew, by the time it was issued, into a pamphlet 

 of nearly fifty pages with a single character key to twenty- 

 eight families of plants and fifteen illustrations. The text gives 

 the number of plants in the family, their distribution, their 

 edible and other qualities and tells how to distinguish the dif- 

 ferent groups. It is not a botanical manual but as an additional 

 help to knowing the plants will be found useful. It costs 25 

 cents or it will be sent free for the asking to new subscribers 

 and to all who renew for two years in advance. 



The late Judge Addison Brown, one of the authors of the 

 'Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern States and Canada," 

 left a considerable sum of money for the purpose of illustrat- 

 ing our wildflowers in color. The series is to be called "Addi- 

 sonia." There will be four numbers a year, each with ten col- 

 ored plates, and the price of the volume will be $10. This 

 country certainly needs a work of this general nature, but it is 

 evident that the promoters of the present scheme have no idea 

 of making it popular. 



"How to Grow Roses" is the name of a little book issued 

 by the Conard & Jones Company, West Grove, Pa., which has 

 attained the dignity of twelve editions, the latest of which, re- 

 vised and enlarged, has just been issued. Though published 

 by a company of rose growers and evidently designed to ad- 

 vance their business through increased rose-growing, it is, nev- 

 ertheless, about the best manual for the lover of roses that we 

 have seen. The title exactly describes the first part of the book 

 which, in addition to discussing how to grow the plants, does 



