recognized that function determines form. But however clearly we recognize now this fact, and however improved become our views of morphology in consequence, it is improbable that categories of homologous organs will cease to demand recognition in our thought and in our terminology. In a somewhat similar way the author constructs men of straw out of the categories caulome, trichome, etc., and charges them so impetuously that his momentum carries him beyond safe middle ground to untenable positions. So completely has he taken the physiological point of view, that he prefers to base terminology upon analogy, even when he acknowledges that it obscures homologies. This may do for popular speech, but it ought not to continue and cannot long persist in scientific language. Though every reader may not be able to go the full length with Professor Goebel, it is manifest that he has produced a most useful and stimulating treatise on the organography of plants, which no one who cares to keep abreast of modern views can neglect.—C. R. B. MINOR NOTICES. DR. CHARLES F. MILLSPAUGH? has published a third contribution to our knowledge of the flora of Yucatan. The Schott herbarium recently obtained, the Witmer Stone collection of 1890 under the auspices of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the E. P. Johnson collection of 1848 (examined at the herbarium of Columbia University), and the continued collections of Dr. Geo. F. Gaumer, have furnished much material not reported heretofore. Sixteen new species are described.-J. M. C. TWO USEFUL bibliographical works have recently reached us. One is from the U. S. Department of Agriculture; a library bulletin containing a "Reference list of publications relating to edible and poisonous mushrooms." It has been compiled by Miss Josephine A. Clark, the assistant librarian, to whom botanists are already under obligations for her card index of new species and illustrations. This bulletin seems to have been called out by the of poisoning some prominent persons at Washington lately through eating amanitas. The list contains 306 titles. The other bibliography is a list of periodicals relating to botany in the New York public library and the library of Columbia University, and also a list of those relating to horticulture and gardening in the same libraries. This 11-page pamphlet reaches us "with the compliments of Lucien M. Underwood," but bears neither imprint nor indication of who its compiler may be. This, however, will not interfere with its usefulness-.C. R. B. 9 Contribution III to the coastal and plain flora of Yucatan. Field Columbian Museum Publication 25. Botanical Series 1: 345-410. 1898. THE BOOKLET, Flowers that never fade," contains an account of the Ware collection of Blaschka glass models in the Harvard University museum. This description was originally prepared by Mr. F. B. Wiley, the author of the Harvard Guide Book, for the Boston Transcript, in response to requests for information concerning this unique collection. Revised and considerably extended, it is now reprinted, with a poetic (?) introduction. Fulsome praise mingles with the description of the inception and execution of the work, and of "The home at Hosterwitz, The author warmly congratulates Harvard University on being "the fortunate possessor of the only collection of these exquisite creations now in existence," and about them he sings: "The varying seasons bring No change to this blossoming: The summer's reign never closes The autumn's horn never holds And the winter never comes Mum's the word.-C. R. B. A USEFUL SET of directions for experiments in plant physiology has recently been published by Dr. J. C. Arthur, in pamphlet form." The series includes thirty-five experiments, and are those which he has found serviceable in illustrating a course of lectures extending over five months. The directions are intended only as a guide to manipulation; not to indicate the purpose of the experiment or the deductions from it. The experiments chosen are illustrative of the fundamental processes of plant life, and the pamphlet will be particularly valuable to teachers who are conducting elementary college courses.-C. R. B. THE INTEREST in native edible mushrooms, and per contra native poisonous ones, has been increasing for sometime. Every addition to the literature of the subject is likely to find an expectant public. The recent publication by 10 WILEY, FRANKLIN BALDWIN.-Flowers that never fade: an account of the Ware collection of Blaschka glass models in the Harvard University museum. 16mo. PP. 41. Boston Bradlee Whidden. 1897. 35 cents. "ARTHUR, J. C.-Laboratory exercises in vegetable physiology. 8vo. pp. 32. figs. 5. Lafayette, Ind.: Kimmel & Herbert. 1897. 35 cents. Dr. Thomas Taylor1 of a work on mushrooms, with colored plates of reasonably good quality, will doubtless meet with an appreciative response. Dr. Taylor was for many years the microscopist of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the readers of this journal do not need to be told the character of his work. In this official capacity he issued a number of reports on mushrooms, which have furnished some of the material for the present series. Although the subject is not treated in a sufficiently systematic way properly to entitle the work to the name of "handbook," and in spite of some irrelevant matter, the mycophagist will yet find much in these pages to help him.-J. C. A. NOTES FOR STUDENTS. A NEW Rumex from Colorado has been described by Geo. E. Osterhout.13 Further notes on the southern species of Asarum have been published by W. W. Ashe."-Professor E. L. Greene has published another fascicle of "New or noteworthy species," in which the following genera are represented by new species: Delphinium, Myosurus, Viola, Mertensia, Plagiobothrys. Lithospermum, and Eriogonum. In "Studies in Compositæ" some helenioid genera are taken up. The name Actinella, as employed by Nuttall and by Gray, is a homonym, and Rafinesque's Ptilepida (used in the Check List) is precluded as a synonym of Persoon's Actinella and not of Nuttall's. Accordingly Professor Greene publishes the name Tetraneuris, under which he places eighteen species. Hooker's Picradenia is kept separate from it, and a new genus, Rydbergia, is founded on Actinella grandiflora T. & G.-Those wishing to keep pace with the synonymy of the species of Asarum should not fail to note the recent brief paper by James Britten and Edward G. Baker, who introduce the new name A. Shuttleworthii.” —J. M. C. HERMANN VON SCHRENK'S" study of the influence of the tornado of 1896 upon the trees of St. Louis is an important contribution to the general subject of the effect of extraordinary conditions upon plant life. Mr. von Schrenk's 12 TAYLOR THOMAS.-Student's handbook of mushrooms of America, edible and poisonous. Washington, A. R. Taylor (238 Mass. Ave., N. E.). Svo. In five numbers of twenty-four pages, and five or six partly colored plates each. 1897-8. 50 cents per number. 13 Erythea 6:13. 1898. 14 Jour. of the Elisha Mitchell Soc. 14:31-36. 1897. 15 Pittonia 3:257-272. 1898. 16 Jour. Bot. 36:96-99. 1898. 17 The trees of St. Louis as influenced by the tornado of 1896. Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci. 7:25-41. 1897. observations of the striking phenomena he describes are extensive and valuable. Finding the immense destruction of leaves to have been the most serious damage done by the storm, he points out the disastrous results of the stoppage of the transpiration current and of the manufacture of nutritive products at a time when the uninjured roots were at a period of their greatest absorbing activity. Where the deficiency in leaf exposure was partially made up either by adventitious budding or by premature growth from the leaf axils of the undestroyed twigs of 1896, careful observations were made of the unnatural "growth ring" thus established. This ring, very evident in the surviving twigs, easily traceable in the larger branches of several years formation, was not to be observed in the main trunk. In very many cases, even where the normal functions seemed to have been restored, trees have since died on account of injuries received by the bark, either by violent wrenching or by later intensified insolation. In the latter case, when the temperature between wood and bark must have risen to a height which destroyed the delicate cambium, the bark has since peeled off before the vegetative parts of the tree have shown signs of withering. Such bark-scorching was almost universal, and Mr. von Schrenk predicts that many of the finest trees for this reason will be unable to stand the strain of another summer. Six plates amply illustrate the text.-J. G. COULTER. F. HEGELMAIER 18 has made an interesting contribution to the subject of polyembryony. In Allium odorum he finds embryos developing not only in the normal manner, but also from synergids, antipodals, and from the wall of the inner integument. One embryo sac contained five embryos, one normal, another from a synergid, two from antipodal cells, and still another from the inner integument. Many irregularities were noted both in the suspensor and in the embryo proper. The stock from which the material was taken had been cultivated in gardens for over twenty years.— CHAS. J. CHAMBERLAIN. A SOMEWHAT MISCELLANEOUS summary of late embryological work is given in the Rev. Gen. Bot. of June 1897. The contributions reviewed range from the work of Chauveaud" upon polyembryony among the Asclepiadaceæ to Belajeff's well known study of the phenomena of the pollen tube in gymnosperms, and Guignard's Nouvelles études sur la fécondation.” It is 18 F. HEGELMATER. Zur Kenntniss der Polyembryonie von Allium odorum. Bot Zeit. 55:133–140. 1897. 20 19 Sur la fécondation dans les cas de polyembryonie. Reproduction chez le Tomptevenin. Paris, Soc. d'edit. sci., 1892. Zur Lehre von dem Pollenschlauche der Gymnospermen. Ber. der de utsch. bot. Gesell. II: 196-201. 1893. too incomplete to be taken for a bibliography of even the most critical of recent contributions in this field, but does offer an easy way of getting at the gist of several valuable but verbose contributions. In the issue of October 15 M. Prunet gives a clear presentation of the embryological investigations of Jaccard on Ephedra and of Karsten 23 on Gnetum.-J. G. COULTER. 22 BY PLACING etiolated leaves, from which the carbohydrate substances have been as completely removed as possible, in contact with various solutions, M. W. Palladine 24 has demonstrated the beneficent influences of certain substances upon the formation of chlorophyll and the retarding effect of others. He lists among substances favorable to chlorophyll formation saccharose, raffinose, glucose, fructose, maltose, glycerin, galactose, lactose, and dextrin. Inuline and tyrosine have no perceptible effect under the conditions employed, while contact with mannite, dulcite, asparagin, urea, alchohol, chloride of ammonia, and quinic acid either checks or absolutely prevents its formation. He also demonstrates by a very simple and efficient experiment that respiration proceeds freely in an atmosphere impoverished of oxygen, in which chlorophyll appears in etiolated leaves not at all or only very slowly.-J. G. COULTER. RECENT ANNUAL REPORTS from the experiment stations containing botanical information are as follows: The Rhode Island report for 1896 treats of carnation diseases (pp. 203-210) by L. F. Kinney, especially of fairy-ring, rust, and "petrified" buds. The two first mentioned were effectively checked with Bordeaux mixture and removal of diseased leaves; the last is supposed to be due to forcing growth beyond healthful limits, as the buds never open. One-third of the report (pp. 242-318) is devoted to an illustrated account of the extended studies of H. J. Wheeler and G. M. Tucker on the value of lime as a fertilizer for field crops. Beneficial results were obtained with many kinds of plants and at different localities in the state. It is ascribed, after making pot observations, to the corrective action upon soil acidity. The report of the Vermont station for 1896-7 contains observations upon pollination of the plum (pp. 87-98) by F. A. Waugh, embracing many interesting details; and also some account of the action of enzyms in hastening germination (pp. 106-111), by the same investigator. The botanist of the station, L. R. Jones, writes (pp. 44-74) upon early blight of potato, including a full bibliography of Alternaria Solani, upon the effect of disinfectants (cor 22 Rechersches embryologiques sur l'Ephedra helvetica. Bul. de la Soc. Vaudoise des Sc. nat. 30: 1894. 23 Beitrag zur Entwickelungsgeschichte einiger Gnetum-Arten. Bot. Zeit. 50:-. 1892. 24 Recherches sur la formation de la chlorophylle dans les plantes. Rev. gen. de bot. 9: 385-394. 1897. |