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characters as the curving of the seta, the calyptra, the inflorescence. The detailed 
study of a small district will furnish better results than long trips into a far country. 
Don’t neglect common species and their forms; the object of study is not to 
discover rarities but to observe the association of species and their relations 
to climatic, topographic and geologic conditions. There is far more interest 
when the aim of moss-study is placed above mere chasing after rarities. ” 
M. Amann informs us that the keys are based largely on those characters 
which years of field study have shown to be most reliable, without neglecting those 
fundamental differences emphasized in the classic European works. By an 
ingenious system of abbreviations and formulae, most of them readily suggesting 
the proper term, it is possible to give a condensed description of the salient 
features of each species at the appropriate place in the key. In nearly all cases 
all species of one genus or group are on one page. This constant necessity of 
verifying a group of characters instead of a single item, should materially prevent 
the beginner (or older student) from thinking that moss species are distinct 
entities that can be separated by the presence or absence of single characters. 
The format of the key is the “box,” as printers say, each group of characters 
being in a separate enclosure; the more general placed vertically at the right, 
the specific ones horizontally at the left, with the species-names near the margin. 
The Catalogue is no mere list. Descriptive or critical notes occur for the 
majority of species, and in many cases there are supplementary keys. In 
Bryum, Brachythecium , Dicranum, and some other genera there is practically a 
synopsis of the European species. For each Swiss species there is a reference to 
exsiccati, the vertical and horizontal distribution, the facts of relation to light, 
moisture, substratum, climate, geological formation, and frequently notes upon 
the association with other species. The book is a mine of information. For 
all less common species there is detailed citation of actual specimens seen. 
The species are classified as primary, secondary, and tertiary in rank, with the 
addition of varieties, races, and forms in addition. Especially worthy of mention 
are the notes on Campylopus Schimperi, Orthotrichum callistomum (of which 
M. Culmann has found a second specimen as well as having had the opportunity of 
examining the original collection), and the keys to Schistidium, the bulbiferous 
Pohliae, and the Barbulae rurales. 
The plates deal mainly with new species or varieties described in the 
volume, and give in general only diagnostic details. They are clear and sharp, 
each figure being accompanied by a line showing actual scale measurement. 
This is certainly a great advantage over the usual method of giving mere magnifi- 
cation. 
In the matter of the authorities for binomials, we wish that the authors 
had more closely followed the prevailing modes of citation. This point seems 
to us a serious defect in the whole work, and one that is bound to make much 
additional labor for others. Only the so-called parenthetical authority for 
the specific name is cited, all authority for the binomial combination being 
omitted, if it is other than that for the specific name. The new species and 
other forms proposed are clearly indicated as new, but in the case of the new 
genera or revival of old genera, there is no indication of the proper authority 
