96 



new work contains ten more that did not appear in the "Illustrated 

 Flora.'' The Ofchidaceae, it may be noted, is only one of a large 

 number making up our flora. Truly the botanist who can follow 

 a system that permits so many changes in five years, must be 

 easily satisfied ! So long as species-making is governed by in- 

 dividual fancy and based upon no sound fundamental principles, 

 we may expect man}- new species based upon such trival charac- 

 teristics as color, size or varying degrees of pubescence. It is no 

 surprise to see certain genera, in which the scientists have been 

 most industrious, greatly increased in size. Thus in "Gray's 

 Manual" Rubus has i i species; in Britton's work 29. Viola has 

 19 species in the one and 43 in the other. Panicum has 25 species 

 in Gray's volume, but the body of Britton's work contains 52, and 

 the appendix brings the number up to 62 without exhausting the 

 list of species described from the Eastern States by the gentleman 

 who collaborated with the author in this part of the work. The 

 difficult genus Aster was a favorite study of Dr. Gray's and he 

 catalogues 54 species and 1 1 varieties. The new volume, how- 

 ever, has 78 species and 59 varieties ! There is a suspicion among 

 many excellent botanists that a large number are mere forms, too 

 insignificant to be worth distinguishing by a scientific name. 

 The reprehensible practice of making an "English" name for each 

 plant that lacked one, has been followed, with the result that we 

 are treated to such combinations as Circulate White Water Crow- 

 foot,, Short-haired Reed-Grass, Farwell's cat's-foot, judge Daly's 

 sunflower, Addison Brown's thorn, Stewardspn Brown's Indian 

 turnip, besides other names certainly neither English nor common, 

 ;>< Schedonnardus, Aphanostrephus, Amphiachrysrs, and Tetra- 

 gonotheca. Notwithstanding the defects here indicated, rather 

 because of them, the book will be invaluable to botanists generally. 

 It should be in every library that has a "Gray's .Manual" upon its 

 shelves. The price is $2.25. 



