Books and Current Literature 



117 



Wittrock, as the result of several years' investigation, has 

 arrived at the conclusion that Linnaea borealis includes a large 

 number of "elementary species," using that term in the sense 

 in which it is employed by de Vries. Four groups, character- 

 ized primarily by the color of the corolla, but having other dis- 

 tinguishing marks, include respectively eighteen, thirty-four, 

 fourteen, and seventy-four such forms, or elementary species, 

 besides about a dozen "sub-forms." This study of what has 

 hitherto been considered a single species, familiarly known to 

 both European and American botanists, is well illustrated, 

 and the different types are so clearly represented, that the facts 

 of the case must be accepted, whatever attitude is held towards 

 the interpretation presented by the author. 



• Bartonia is the appropriate title of a new botanical annual 

 which records the proceedings of the Philadelphia Botanical 

 Club. The first number appeared in February, 1909. The 

 name was chosen in honor of Prof. William P. C. Barton, for- 

 merly professor of botany in the University of Pennsylvania, 

 and author of the first local flora of Philadelphia. There is a 

 fresh breath from field and forest in the reports of the out-door 

 work, and an absence of the herbarium odor that sticks so per- 

 sistently to some publications. 



The third edition of the Botaniker-Adressbuch, an 

 index to the names and addresses of living botanists of all 

 countries, of the botanic gardens and institutes, of societies con- 

 cerned in botany and of periodical publications, has appeared 

 bearing date of 1909. It contains about 12,580 addresses, and 

 with the ordinary advertisements makes a volume of 478 pages. 

 This would make a fairly convenient book to handle, and there 

 it ought to end, but to this there are added xviii + 268 pages of 

 " Bibliographia Botanica," \V. Junk, Berlin, which might more 

 reasonably have been distributed in the usual manner of book 

 dealers, thereby greatly improving the Adressbuch. 



Elements of Physical Geography is the title of an interesting 

 text-book by Prof. T. C. Hopkins of Syracuse University. This 



