96 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
proaching the subject leave wide scope for individual choice in the 
matter of a hand-book. F. Schuyler Matthews' 'Tield-book of 
American Wild Flowers," has to recommend it, the fact that it is 
small enough to slip into the pocket although it illustrates nearly 
200 of our native wild flowers and describes several times as 
many in a way that enables the average botanizer to pick out his 
plant at once. There are 24 colored plates and the others face 
the descriptions of the plants which they illustrate. The families 
are arranged in the Engler-Prantl sequence, and the descriptions 
pay especial attention to the time of blooming, the color of the 
flowers, and the insect which assist in cross-pollenating them. 
Mr. Matthews' artistic instincts will not let him agree with the 
prevailing ideas of color and he says 'Tn botanical and ornitholo- 
gical works we find such color names as fuscous, rufous, vinac- 
eous, ferrugineous, rose-purple, greenish-purple, etc." They 
mean nothing to one w^ho is not a scientist and I half suspect they 
mean little to one who is. Purple (botanically speaking) is a 
dreadfully abused term which is made to stand for half the rain- 
bow. As an actual fact it is fairly represented by Mimuhis ring^ 
pi\s and one jot to the right or left of that line is not purple. 
Pure yellow is perfectly represented by Oenothera biennis. Blue 
in its pure form only exists (dilutely) in Myostis/' Readers may 
therefore expect to find new but more correct and definite color 
names given to even well-known blossoms. As to nomenclature, 
he says : "From what I know of the so-called Rochester code, I 
should say it is a disturbing influence among already agitated con- 
ditions and its lack of consistency does not entitle it to unreserved 
acceptance." The book has a great advantage over others of its 
class in its portability. The illustrations are very characteristic 
but it seems to the reviewer, that reference to the book would 
have been much facilitated by a simple key to the species. The 
book is published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, at $1.85. 
