Plates and Descriptions of the Grasses of the Desert Region of Western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. Part J. By George Vasey. 50 plates. Small 410. Bulletin No. 12, of the Division of Botany of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. "The region of country immediately adjoining the northern boundary of Mexico, including the western part of Texas and the greater part of New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California, is one of remarkable heat and aridity." Such is the territory covered by this attractive contribution. The grass flora is scanty, some of the species being short-lived, springing up suddenly after the summer rains and rapidly maturing, while the perennial and more conspicuous ones grow in isolated bunches. "Nowhere do the native grasses form a continuous sod, but grow in scattered bunches in connection with the low bushes which prevail on the mesas or among the chaparral." "Here one never sees the common grasses of the Eastern States. The vegetation is as different from that of the Eastern States as is that of the northern portion of the Sahara." Even the scientific accounts of the flora of this desert region are few, and popular ones are unknown.

Something must be done for the country if it arises to agricultural importance, and "it is the opinion of many that this can be done by bringing under cultivation some of the native species" of grasses. Hence the mission of Dr. Vasey's report.

Flora of Nebraska.

Grasses of the Southwest.

This bulletin is the first part of the first volume of a proposed grass book, the title of which is to be "Illustrations of North American Grasses," although, strangely enough, it is to deal only with the species of this southwestern region and of the Pacific Slope. The work will comprise two volumes.

The fifty plates in this work are lithographs, and are the best figures of American grasses that have yet been made.