Schw.," published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1879, p. 66, shows the growth of a healthy critical spirit, the author having satisfied himself that the species named includes thirteen or more forms hitherto regarded as distinct species.

Dr. Farlow's lecture on "The Diseases of Forest Trees," an abstract of which was published in the Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (1879), consists of a plain account of the fungoid growths upon forest trees. As a contribution to the popular economic mycology of the United States, this lecture is to be regarded as a most valuable one.

Thomas G. Lea's list of "The Fungi collected in the vicinity of Cincinnati," originally published in 1849, was republished with a few additions, by J. F. James in the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, 1879. In its revised form it includes 319 species.

Of the two American exsiccati now publishing, Centuries III and IV of Ravenel and Cooke's Fungi Americani appeared early in 1879, and Centuries II and III of Ellis' North American Fungi.

b. Alga. In the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1879, Dr. B. D. Halsted published a valuable paper on the "Classification and Description of the American species of Characeæ." Eight species of Nitella, one of Tolypella and nine of Chara are fully described. The references to descriptions and exsiccati appear to be full, and the geographical distribution of the species is as well worked out as the material at the command of the author would admit. A valuable list of the works consulted in its preparation is found at the end of the paper.

Dr. T. F. Allen's "Characeæ Americanæ," of which Parts I and II were issued in 1879, is another valuable contribution to our knowledge of the hitherto little studied American species of the Characeæ. Each part consists of a colored lithograph of a species accompanied by descriptive letterpress.

"The Seaweeds of Salt lake," is the title of a short article by Dr. Packard in the November NATURALIST. It is composed mainly of Dr. Farlow's preliminary report upon a collection of Algæ obtained by Dr. Packard from the Great Salt lake of Utah. Two of the species are recognized as marine forms, while the third is new.

Francis Wolle, in an article entitled "Dubious character of

some of the genera of fresh water Algæ," published in the American Quarterly Microscopical Journal, records some of his observations upon the unicellular forms of vegetation occurring in fresh water, and "questions the place given' them as plants," and suggests that many of them "are merely forms of gonidia or spores or sporangia, various stages of development in the life history of filamentous plants." The same writer, in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (January and February, 1879), published a "Synopsis of the Discoveries and Researches of fresh water Algæ in 1878," in which some American species are, for the first time, described, and many others catalogued.

Fasciculus III of Alga Exsiccatæ Am. Bor., containing thirty species of the larger alga (Fucaceæ and Florideæ) was issued by the authors, Farlow, Anderson and Eaton, during the year 1879.

c. Lichens. But little appears to have been published in 1879 by the lichenologists of this country. Prof. Tuckerman's list of the lichens in Dr. Rothrock's "Catalogue of the plants collected in Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona" (Wheeler's Report, Vol. vi) is the only publication in this department which has come to hand.

d. Bryophytes (Mosses and Liverworts).—In the catalogue just referred to above, Thomas P. James enumerates seventy-nine species of mosses, and C. F. Austin fifteen species of liverworts. In Mr. James' list the less known species and genera are described, and to nearly all short notes upon habit or habitat are appended. "Descriptions of some new species of North American Mosses," by Leo Lesquereux and Thomas P. James (Proc. Amer. Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1879), includes the descriptions of fourteen new species, mostly from the Southern and Western States.

Under the titles of "Some New Musci" (Botanical Gazette, April, 1879), "Bryological Notes" (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Sept., 1879), and "Notes on Hepaticology" (Ibid, April, 1879), the lamented C. F. Austin described a considerable number of new mosses and liverworts.

e. Pteridophytes (Vascular Cryptogams). — It is a pleasure to direct the attention of botanists to the industry of Prof. Eaton, whose "Ferns of the Southwest" (Wheeler's Report, Vol. vi), "The Ferns of North America" and "New and little known Ferns of the United States" (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, pp. 306, 360), appeared wholly or in part in 1879. The first includes descrip

tions of all the less known ferns of the Southwest, z. e., the UtahArizona region. In all sixty-six species are noticed, and one figured in Plate xxx. It should be remembered that while the preface to the work bears the date of 1877, the date of its actual appearance in the volume of which it forms a part is properly 1879. A few copies were separately distributed some time in advance of the publication of the whole report, but the exact date of this distribution is not known to the writer of this paper. The great work on the "Ferns of North America" with its fine colored plates was nearly brought to a close during the year 1879. It will forever remain a monument to the ability of its author.

In "Fern Etchings," by John Williamson we have a notable example of the good work which may be done by the painstaking lover of plants. The volume contains plates of sixty-eight ferns of the United States, with letterpress descriptions of each.

G. E. Davenport's "Catalogue of the 'Davenport Herbarium' of North American Ferns" is interesting as being the first complete catalogue of the ferns of this country. It contains one hundred and forty-two species, besides sixteen varieties.

Among other publications, Mr. J. F. James' list of vascular cryptogams in his catalogue of Cincinnati plants, above referred to, and Prof. J. W. Chickering's list in his catalogue of the plants of Dakota and Montana (Bull. U. S. Geol. and Gograph. Survey, Vol. IV), deserve mention. Baron Eggers' similar list, in his "Flora of St. Croix and the Virgin islands" (Bull. U. S. Nat. Museum) should also probably be noticed here.

f. Phanerogams.—The most notable contribution in this department is the "Report upon the Botanical Collections made in portions of Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, during the years 1871 to 1875," by Dr. J. T. Rothrock, being Vol. vi of the Reports upon the U. S. Geographical Surveys west of the 100th meridian, in charge of Lieut. Wheeler. The work contains a General Report, in which the general features of the flora of the Colorado and the New Mexico districts are separately described. This portion also contains some valuable and interesting notes upon economic botany. The main part of the work consists of the catalogue proper. This is modeled after Sereno Watson's "Botany" of the Clarence King Reports. All the genera and species not contained in Gray's Manual, or in Watson's Botany, are here fully described.

While Dr. Rothrock bore the burden of the work, he availed himself freely of the aid of such excellent botanists as Mr. Watson, who worked out the Leguminosæ, Dr. Engelmann (Cactaceæ, Asclepiadaceæ, Gentianaceæ, Cuscuteæ, Euphorbiaceæ, Cupuliferæ, Loranthaceæ, Coniferæ, Amaryllidaceæ and Juncaceæ), Prof. Porter (Polemoniaceæ, Borraginaceæ, Scrophulariaceæ, Labiatæ and Polygonacea), M. S. Bebb (the genus Salix), Wm. Boot (the genus Carex) and Dr. Vasey (the Gramineæ). Twenty-nine excellent plates of flowering plants, mostly from drawings by Isaac Sprague, accompany the volume.

Dr. Gray's "Botanical Contributions" (Proc. Am. Acad. of Arts and Sciences) contained (1) "Characters of some new species of Composite in the Mexican collection made by C. C. Parry and Edward Palmer, chiefly in the Province of San Luis Potosi, in 1878," and (2) "Some new North American Genera, Species, &c." The new genera are Suksdorfia, a Saxifragaceous genus from the Columbia river, and Howellia (Lobeliacea) from Oregon.

Sereno Watson's "Contributions to American Botany, Ix" (Proc. Am. Acad. of Arts and Sciences), issued July, 1879, contained (1) a " Revision of the North American Liliacea," and (2) "Descriptions of some new species of North American Plants." Under the first part, the fifty genera and two hundred and thirtyfive native species are arranged and described. The whole order, which here includes the Melanthaceæ, is divided into sixteen tribes, "based upon the characters of the inflorescence, and such others as can be used without separating evidently allied genera." The Allieæ come first, then the Milleæ, Convallarieæ sixth, Yucceæ ninth, with Lilieæ, Uvularieæ, Trillieæ, Veratreæ following in order, and the Xerophylleæ at the end. In the second part the new genus Hollisteria (Eriogoneæ) is described. "The Willows of California," by M. S. Bebb, issued July, 1879, consists of advance sheets of the "Botany of California, Vol. 11." Six new species and seven new varieties are described.

Wm. M. Canby, in the Botanical Gazette for March, published under the title of "Notes on Baptisia," a valuable synopsis of an arrangement of the North American species, sixteen in number.

Among the lists of plants the following may be mentioned, viz: Prof. J. W. Chickering's "Catalogue of the Phænogamous and vascular Cryptogamous Plants collected during the summer of 873 and 1874 in Dakota and Montana," published in Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog Survey, Vol. IV; this enumerates 673 flowering

plants; J. F. James' "Catalogue of the Flowering Plants, Ferns and Fungi growing in the vicinity of Cincinnati," with 869 flowering plants; "Colorado Plants," a list of plants collected in Central and Southern Colorado, by I. C. Martindale, published in the November NATURALIST, with notes upon the rarer species; "Ballast Plants in New York city and its vicinity," by Addison Brown, in the November Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, enumerating 258 species.

Here must be mentioned the fine work by Thomas Meehan, "The Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States," consisting of chromo-lithographs with explanatory letter-press. This work continued to be issued in parts through the year.

Baron H. F. A. Eggers' "Flora of the St. Croix and Virgin Islands," published in Bull. U. S. Nat. Museum, should probably be noticed here. It enumerates 977 flowering plants.

C. Geographical and Geological.—Under the title of "A Visit to the Shell islands of Florida," A. H. Curtiss, in the February, March and May numbers of the Botanical Gazette, gives an interesting account of the vegetation of these little-visited islands. Much like this also is J. H. Redfield's "Notes of a Botanical Excursion into North Carolina," in the July and August numbers of the Bull. Torr. Bot. Club. In the party were Dr. Gray, Prof. Sargent, Mr. Canby and others, and one important object of the excursion was the finding of more specimens of Shortia.

"The Forests of Central Nevada, with some remarks on those of the Adjacent Regions," by Prof. C. S. Sargent, in the June Am. Four. Sci. and Arts, contains notes upon the trees of the region, and comparative lists of the ligneous floras of the Rocky mountains, the Nevada and the Sierra Nevada regions. Much like the foregoing in treatment, but referring to very different plants, is Dr. Gray's paper, "The Pertinacity and Predominance of Weeds," in the September Am. Four. Sci. and Arts.

In the Bulletin of the U. S. Geol. and Geographical Survey, Vol. v, W. H. Holmes contributes an interesting article on the "Fossil Forests of the Volcanic Tertiary Formations of the Yellowstone National Park." In some places the aggregate thickness of the strata reaches more than one vertical mile (5500 feet), and throughout these strata are found vast numbers of silicified remains of tree trunks. The article is accompanied by a figure of the north face of Amethyst mountain, showing a precipice composed of upwards of two thousand feet of strata.