CROSSOSOMA, 
BY FRANK H. VASLIT. 
This genus, which has been referred to various orders with more 
or less uncertainty, consists of two described species. C. Califor- 
nicum was described from Catalina Island, and has since been found 
on Guadalupe Island. It was said to be four feet high, but has 
since been observed on the island where it was first discovered to be 
as much as twelve feet high and four inches in diameter. 
A collection made by Mr. Brandegee last year in Lower California 
makes it doubtful whether the second species, C. Bigelovi?, is any- 
thing more than a depauperate variety of the first. In these speci- 
mens of Mr. Brandegee’s the petals, though more slender than 
those of the island form, are 8-16 mm. long, the stamens 15-30, 
and the carpels nearly as long as in the original species. The leaves 
as in all the mainland forms are smaller, thicker, and with less distinct 
reticulations. 
Certain structural peculiarities seem to have been in some degree 
misunderstood. In the original description Nuttall states that the 
carpels are united at the base and stipitate. Although this charac- 
ter does not appear in his plate, and has been neglected by every 
subsequent author, it is true to an extent which Mr, Nuttall probably 
never observed, the stipe being in many cases 8-10 mm. long. The 
carpels are often six. Bentham says that the carpels separate into 
two valves, a statement which is certainly not borne out by the facts. 
They open only along the ventral side, and never by the dorsal 
ridge, which represents the midrib ot the leaf. The seeds are min- 
utely reticulate, the base of the aril is apparently continued as a 
lining to the inflexed hilum. 
cn nn 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
ZOOLOGY. 
In the initial article of the January number of the Aw, Mr. J. | 
A. Allen makes many timely remarks and intimations on ‘‘ To 
What Extent is it Profitable to Recognize Geographical Forms 
among North American Birds.’ Not only will it bear careful read- 
ing and consideration by nearly all the ornithologists of this country, 
but mammalogists and others may well reflect upon the importance 
of allowing “incipient local forms’’ to “escape till further differen- 
