  The recent {\sl ROSAT \/} X-ray detections of hot intergalactic gas in three
groups of galaxies are reviewed and the resulting baryonic fraction in these
groups is reevaluated. We show that the baryonic fraction obtained, assuming
hydrostatic equilibrium, should depend, perhaps sensitively, on the radius out
to which the X-rays are detected, and the temperature profile of the gas. We
find that the NGC 2300 group has a baryonic fraction out to $25'$ of at least
20\%, thus over five times higher than in the original analysis of Mulchaey
\etal\ (1993), and also much higher than one would obtain from big-bang
nucleosynthesis, but similar to the other two groups as well as rich clusters.
With this baryonic fraction, groups would be fair tracers of the distribution
of baryons in the Universe if $\Omega h_{50}^2 = 0.3$. A baryonic fraction that
increases with radius is consistent with the X-ray data from all three groups.
However, a detailed analysis of the NGC 2300 group shows that the dependence of
baryonic fraction on radius is not well constrained by the data, in part
because of uncertainties in the estimated background.
