92 Proceedings of Societies. [ZOE 
Three Native Plants: E. J. Hill. Variations of the Rootstock of 
Smilax glauca dependent upon Environment: Wm. T. Davis. 
An Undescribed Desmodium from Texas and Mexico: _ Anna Maria 
Vail. Plants of Special Interest collected at Orono, Maine. Merritt 
L. Fernald. 
Third Biennial Report of the State Board of Forestry, for the 
years 1889-90. 8 vo., pp. 212. The first part of the volume is 
devoted to a report by W. S. Lyon, State Forester, on the progress 
made in introducing and acclimatizing foreign trees; the second 
part by John Gill Lemmon, botanist of the Commission, contains an 
account of the Conifers of the Pacific Coast, enriched by many pho- 
tographs. A new genus, Hesperopeuce, is proposed for the well 
known 7suga Pattoniana. ; 
Journal of Mycology, vol. 6, No. ti, published by the Department - 
of Agriculture. A new Hollyhock disease, Colletotrichum althee, 
by Miss E. A. Southworth. Recent Investigations of Smut Fungi 
and Smut Diseases by Dr. Oscar Brefeld, translated from Nach- 
vichten aus dem Klub der Landwirthe cu Berlin, a paper of very 
great interest. The author details numerous experiments with the 
smuts Ustilago carbo, U. cruenta and U. maydts, undertaken to de- 
termine the period of infection. The experiments tend to show 
that in slender plants with necessarily minute and well covered 
growing points, infection apparently takes place very early, in most 
cases, soon after the appearance of the plumule, but excéptionally, 
and in Maize and Sorghum frequently, if not nearly always, the 
young tissue may become affected at any part of the plant. 
The spread of smuts in fields was found to be very greatly pro- 
moted by the use of fresh dung. : 
The number also contains some notes of interest on A New and 
Destructive Oat Disease, by B. T. Galloway and E. A. Southworth ; 
Note on a Minnesota species of Isaria and an attendant Pachybasium, 
by Conway MacMillan; A Few New Fungi, by J. B. Ellis and S. 
M. Tracy, and a new species, Mucronoporus Andersonit, by the for- 
mer. : H.W. H. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. March 2, 1891, Presi- — 
dent Harkness in the chair, 
Donations to the Museum were reported from the following: L. 
