119 
of this magazine, assures his readers that we referred the 
plant {Ceanothus Americnnas) to the Sapindaceie or 
soapwort family. If the editor will look at the article 
again he will find that our statement was that it is allied 
to the family mentioned. It is, as the editor states, a 
member of the Rhamnaceie and thus closely related to the 
soapworts. Our reputation for accuracy is such that we 
do not like to have the people on the other side of the 
world get a wrong impressit)n. The soapworts, repre- 
sented in North America by a small group of buckeyes, 
horse-chestnuts and the soapberry, are more abundant in 
India having a large number of representatives. One of 
the best known of these is XepheHum lichi which vieldsthe 
fruit known in this country as Chinese nuts or lichees. 
BOOKS AND WRITERS. 
^' Ferns and How to Grow Them" is the title of a 
small volume bv G. A. Woolson recentlv issued bv 
Doubleday, Page & Co. 
MacMillan and Company have recently published a 
second revised edition of Campbell's "Sti-ucture and De- 
velopment of the Mosses and Ferns." The work is re- 
garded as a standard bv botanists and has been out of 
print for several years. " 
One can fairly judge of the length of time a coimtry 
has l)een settled, by the character of the books relating to 
its botany. In new countries the botanical literature runs 
to the description of new species and the making ot man- 
uals but in countries that have been settled for a longer 
period, the plant student has had time to look about him 
and take note of something else l^esides specific and generic 
characters. In the end this is likely to prove the true bot- 
any, and it is an encouraging sign of the times that books 
of this order are beginning to appear. The best of these 
that we have yet seen is by Lord Aveburj,- (John Lubbock) 
a scientist whose long famiharitj- with nature in general 
